NASA reported the approach to Earth of a 40-meter asteroid
The Earth is approaching asteroid that is wider than the Chelyabinsk meteorite. This was announced by the head of the research Center of near-earth objects at the jet propulsion Laboratory of NASA Gender khodas.
He noted that this is the second asteroid for a week, which will fly close to Earth. Its dimensions are 15 x 40 metres, which exceeds the size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that fell to Earth in 2013. However, in this case scientists believe that the heavenly body will not come into the atmosphere of our planet.
Asteroid will fly by on distance of 6 thousand km from Earth on the night of February 10.
“The asteroid, named 2018-CB most closely passes Earth Feb 9 at 22:30 GMT (10 Feb at 01:30 GMT). This distance corresponds to approximately one fifth of the distance from the Earth to the moon”, — quotes Reuters the Khodas.
The expert noted that asteroids of this size rarely pass so close to Earth.
“Maybe only one or two times a year”, — said the scientist.
This is the second asteroid that is approaching Earth this week. The previous size was 15×30 m, it was at a distance of 184 thousand km from Earth.
In December, the portal iz.ru reported that near the Earth flew by asteroid the size of a skyscraper. According to scientists, the giant swept past our planet at a speed of 34 km/s.