SUV-sized asteroid breaks record for closest Earth fly-by

NASA has announced that a SUV-sized asteroid just passed by Earth, marking the closest asteroid fly-by ever recorded by scientists.

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NASA has announced that an SUV-sized asteroid just made the closest-known approach to Earth, but it didn't collide with the surface.

SUV-sized asteroid breaks record for closest Earth fly-by 01

According to a NASA blog post found on its website, an SUV-sized asteroid just fly by Earth, and as NASA states, this fly-by has marked the closest Near-Earth Asteroid. The asteroid is named Asteroid 2020 QG, and measures in at roughly 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6 meters) across, which is very small by asteroid standards.

Asteroid 2020 QG passed Earth at just 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers), and if it happened to be on the trajectory with Earth, it would have become a fireball and broken up in Earth's atmosphere. Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said, "It's really cool to see a small asteroid come by this close, because we can see the Earth's gravity dramatically bend its trajectory. Our calculations show that this asteroid got turned by 45 degrees or so as it swung by our planet."

If you didn't know, there are hundreds of millions of small asteroids the size of the asteroid that just passed Earth, but unfortunately, they are extremely hard to observe until they fly close to Earth. If you are interested in more information about this topic, check out this link here.

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NEWS SOURCE:jpl.nasa.gov

Jak joined the TweakTown team in 2017 and has since reviewed 100s of new tech products and kept us informed daily on the latest science, space, and artificial intelligence news. Jak's love for science, space, and technology, and, more specifically, PC gaming, began at 10 years old. It was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on an old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of typical FPS, Jak holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.

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