A “potentially hazardous” stadium-sized asteroid passed close to Earth on Tuesday night.
The asteroid 2024 ON zipped past Earth at a speed of 19.842 mph and, at its closest, came within 0.62 million miles (1 million km) of Earth, around 2.6 times the average distance between Earth and the moon.
The space rock had last passed by Earth in 2013 and after its Tuesday night flyby, NASA’s predicts its coming back in 2035.
Asteroid 2024 ON is one of the five astroids that have been identified as near-earth objects passing by Earth of late.
NASA classifies any asteroid or comets with orbits that come within 120 million miles (193 million km) of Earth as a “near-Earth object”. This made 2024 ON extremely close to Earth, but it is still quite far away from Earth to pose a risk of impact.
How Does NASA Spot a Near-Earth Asteroid?
The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) is responsible for characterizing the orbits of all near-earth objects, predicting their approach to Earth and making assessments about the astroids impact on Earth. Only a small fraction of the near-Earth object fall into the “potentially hazardous” category which means they have to be more than 460 feet (140 meters) in size and have orbits within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million km) of Earth.
According to NASA, Earth faces no known danger from any near-Earth object encounters for at least the next 100 years.
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