The year 2020 is clearly out to make its mark in a big way: a global pandemic, massive wildfires across the Western United States, huge demonstrations for social justice around the globe.
Here’s another one: a record observed near-miss of Earth by a rock from space.
On Aug. 15, at 9:08 p.m. PDT, the robotic sky-scanning survey telescope at the NSF/NASA-funded Zwicky Transient Facility at Palomar Observatory in California captured an image of a previously unknown asteroid, 10-20 feet in diameter, whizzing by Earth at a speed of 8 miles per second. The image was taken only six hours after the rock’s closest approach, 1,830 miles from Earth’s surface over the southern Indian Ocean, closer than any previously known near-Earth asteroid, or NEA.
A student in India, examining images captured by the ZTF telescope in California, first spotted and reported the object.
Source: KQED
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3 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.8 miles a second, whee. A bit slower and that thing would have been pulled in to the atmosphere. Btw there are rocks smaller than that that do enter the atmosphere and It's a problem for people who monitor nuclear explosions as they mimic them.
starwatcher-al
Level 7
Sep 12, 2020
1
Being 2020, I am surprised it didn't hit us!
Hathacat
Level 9
Sep 12, 2020
2
Wasn't in god's plan. (sorry).
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