Two asteroids passed close to Earth Wednesday

Two asteroids passed close to Earth Wednesday
These are not the two asteroids that passed by Earth on Wednesday -- but is an illustration of a binary asteroid. Credit: ESO/L. Calcada

Earth got a double dose of close asteroid flybys on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Two newly discovered small asteroids both passed within the distance of the Moon.

2011 GW9 (10 meters wide) came within half the distance to the , about 192,000 km 12:53 a.m. EDT and 2011 GP28 (6 meters wide) came within 77,000 km (.2 LD) at 3:36 p.m. EDT.

Spaceweather.com said the size of these asteroids are two to three times smaller than the Tunguska impactor of 1908, and assured there was no danger of a collision with Earth.

Source: Universe Today

Citation: Two asteroids passed close to Earth Wednesday (2011, April 7) retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2011-04-asteroids-earth-wednesday.html
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Two asteroids to pass by Earth Wednesday

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