For the second time in 2019, a pretty big asteroid passed Earth and during the ‘close’ flyby, the asteroid will come within a minimum distance of 487,000 km from our planet.
- Discovered by NASA only on 24th October, the asteroid called 2019 UM12 is traveling at speeds of over 30,700 mph and was closest to Earth at 17:41 UTC on November 7.
- The size of the asteroid with a diameter of 69 meters (230ft) is roughly more than 40,000 sq. ft. which is bigger than a football field
- The image released by NASA shows the asteroid reaching our cosmic backyard and we have a decent photo via motion-tracking technology.
- The distance is close enough for the authorities to take notice at just slightly more than Moon’s average orbit.
- The visitor from space has never done a flyby of Earth before this and is not likely to pass the same route again.
- The asteroid is the singular, bright dot (at a distance of approx. 1.15 million km from Earth, while stars in the background extend out into long trails.
- The new visitor doing a close flyby is around 3.7 times bigger than the earlier asteroid that buzzed past the Earth at half the distance to Moon on 4th November.
