Small asteroid passed closer than TV satellites

[eppur_se_muova]

By Eddie Irizarry in Space | October 20, 2018

Newly-discovered Asteroid 2018 UA made an extremely close approach to Earth on Friday morning. Luckily, the space rock was too small to be dangerous.

A small space rock made an extremely close approach yesterday (October 19, 2018). The close flyby of Asteroid 2018 UA occurred just hours after being detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.

Limited observations did not allow for precise trajectory calculations, but estimates suggest the small asteroid passed at a distance between 4,536 miles to 9,540 miles (7,300 km to 15,353 km) from Earth’s surface. For comparison, meteorological and television satellites orbit at some 22,300 miles (35,888 km) from our planet’s surface, which means the asteroid’s approach was one of the closest registered.

Was Earth at danger? No. Fortunately, it was just a 10-20 foot (3-6 meter) space rock, which means that most of the asteroid would disintegrate if it entered our atmosphere. If a space rock of that size did enter our atmosphere, it would be visible as an impressive meteor, probably even in daylight.
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more: https://earthsky.org/space/small-asteroid-passed-closer-than-tv-satellites-oct2018

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. That's pretty close!

Good that we spotted it.

[PJMcK]

2. That's a slightly exaggerated story

Just because the asteroid passed inside the geostationary orbits of some of our satellites doesn't suggest that Earth was in any danger. It's trajectory was not going to intersect with our planet. Combined with the small size of the asteroid, this is, in fact, almost a non-story. There wasn't any danger and this kind of thing probably has happened many, many times but gone undetected. Earth is fortunate to have an atmosphere to help protect the surface from space rocks.

What's far more fascinating to me is that our astronomers have been able to improve their space-gazing such that they can detect these small asteroids! Think of how remarkable it is that they could find this pebble in the vast darkness of space AND calculate its approximate trajectory. Damn, those are smart people. Keep up the great work, folks!

I can't resist a political comment: Those scientists must have a "natural instinct" for politics.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

3. Considering it has no light source

and we picked up a black object against a black background....we are getting better with detecting stuff!