ANKARA:
This week two asteroids, one the size of a bus and the other a car, passed by the Earth safely, the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) announced on Wednesday.
According to CNEOS – part of US space agency NASA based in Pasadena, California – the close flybys happened within the space of just two hours on Monday.
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The first asteroid, a bus-sized space rock called 2020 RF3, flew by the Earth at a distance of 94,000 kilometers (58,500 miles) at 0649GMT.
Roughly two hours later, the second rock, a car-sized asteroid called 2020 RD4, forged a similar path 106,000 kilometers (65,700 miles) away from the Earth at 0833GMT.
On September 14 2020 asteroids 2020 RF3 & 2020 RD4 made a close approach to Earth.
— Mark Steven ☀️🌏🌗🪐☄️✨🚀 (@_MarkSteven) September 14, 2020
2020 RF3 is 5.3-12m in size at a distance of 93985 km.
2020 RD4 is 2.9-6.6m in size at a distance of 105733 km from Earth.
Credit: https://t.co/XE3xGUEFqA /NASA/JPL-Caltech/Steve Spaleta pic.twitter.com/yEQ7DJ6qoq
Considering the distance between the moon and the Earth is 385,000 kilometers (239,000 miles), the first asteroid was quite close to our home planet.
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Every year, a large number of asteroids are dispersed into the interior of the solar system. Some of them could enter the Earth’s orbit.
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