BLUF:
NASA knows about only a fraction of near-Earth objects (NEOs) like this one. Many do not cross any telescope’s line of sight, and several potentially dangerous asteroids have snuck up on scientists in recent years.
If the wrong one slipped through the gaps in our NEO-surveillance systems, it could kill tens of thousands of people.
An Asteroid Just Made The Closest Earth Fly-by on Record, And We Didn’t See It Coming.
A car-size asteroid flew within about 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) of Earth on Sunday.
That’s a remarkably close shave – the closest ever recorded, in fact, according to asteroid trackers and a catalogue compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy.
Because of its size, the space rock most likely wouldn’t have posed any danger to people on the ground had it struck our planet. But the close call is worrisome nonetheless, since astronomers had no idea the asteroid existed until after it passed by.
“The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the Sun,” Paul Chodas, the director of NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider.
“We didn’t see it coming.” Continue reading “”





