[Faline]

An asteroid hurtled past the Earth Today in something of a cosmic near-miss, making its closest approach at about 1600 GMT.

The asteroid, estimated to be about 11m (36ft) in diameter, was first detected on Wednesday.

At its closest, the space rock - named 2012 BX34 - passed within about 60,000km of Earth - less than a fifth of the distance to the Moon.

Astronomers stressed that there had been no cause for concern.

"It's one of the closest approaches recorded," said Gareth Williams, associate director of the US-based Minor Planet Center.

"It makes it in to the top 20 closest approaches, but it's sufficiently far away... that there's absolutely no chance of it hitting us," he told the BBC.

The asteroid's path made it the closest space-rock to pass by the Earth since object 2011 MD in June 2011.

Earlier estimates had put the asteroid's closest distance at as little as 20,000km, near the distance at which geostationary satellites reside, but studies by observatories overnight into Friday showed it would pass at a more comfortable distance.

Although the asteroid was not visible to the naked eye, Dr Williams said that keen backyard astronomers had been busy getting a look.

"We've had three sets of observations in the last few hours from amateur observers in the UK," he said.

[slash4321]

It's strange to think that, whilst I was getting my hair cut, an asteroid was intensely close to wiping me out.

[Illusion]

FFS maybe next time.

[poopy123]

Imagine getting a video of one of those hitting a populated area and showing it on DR.

One day maybe.

[durt]

[Wildrice]

Originally Posted by Illusion ↗

FFS maybe next time.

Hopefully.

[BryanXavier]

n September, NASA announced that it has spotted about 90 percent of the largest asteroids (the size of a mountain or bigger) that can come near Earth. About 911 such giant space rocks have been confirmed. Astronomers estimate there are about 981 big near-Earth objects that occasionally creep close to our planet.

Asteroid 2012 BX34 was the second space rock to fly relatively close by Earth this week, Asteroid Watch scientists said. On Jan. 23, another small asteroid — called 2012 BS1 — passed by the planet at a range of about 745,000 miles (1.2 million km), which is about 3.1 times the Earth-moon distance.

"Asteroid 2012 BS1 is so small (about 7 meters) it would disintegrate in our atmosphere if it were to come close to Earth," the Asteroid Watch team wrote.

Astronomers with NASA and other science teams routinely scan the skies in search of near-Earth asteroids that could pose a danger to the planet. Experts estimate that asteroids about 460 feet (140 m) across and bigger can cause widespread devastation near their impact sites, though a larger space rock would be required to cause destruction on a global scale.

[ices]

Originally Posted by poopy123 ↗

Imagine getting a video of one of those hitting a populated area and showing it on DR.

One day maybe.

Anything bigger than 1km will wipe you out as well no matter where it hits.

[kellyhound]

11 months to go.