Asteroid came very close to Earth

Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, primarily found in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They vary in size from tiny boulders to large bodies hundreds of kilometers across. Most asteroids are irregularly shaped and lack atmospheres. They are remnants from the early solar system’s formation, composed mainly of rock and metal. Occasionally, asteroids can deviate from their orbits due to gravitational interactions with other celestial bodies, leading to close approaches to Earth or even collisions. These collisions have played significant roles in shaping the history of our planet, with some scientists proposing that asteroid impacts may have caused mass extinctions in the past.

An asteroid the size of a small car came very close to Earth but missed our planet. The rocky celestial body is the same type of asteroid as the destructive Chelyabinsk meteor. n February 2013, a meteor the size of a six-story house burst over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The resulting pressure wave injured around 1,500 people and damaged 3,700 buildings. The meteor belonged to the group of Apollo-type asteroids near Earth. These asteroids can cross Earth’s orbit, which poses a risk of impact.

The largest Apollo asteroid is Sisyphus, which is 8.5 kilometers in diameter. Fortunately, the asteroid 2024 JN16, which flew close to Earth on Tuesday, is nowhere near as big. Its diameter is only around four meters, as space.com writes . This makes it about the size of a small car. At a distance of 18,500 kilometers, the asteroid came as close to Earth as only two others this year, which were even smaller. According to Watchers, a total of 42 asteroids have crossed the Earth within the lunar orbit since the beginning of the year – less than 385,000 kilometers away. How close 2024 JN16 came to Earth can be seen by comparing it with the distance of the so-called geostationary satellites. These are around 36,000 kilometers – twice as far – from Earth.