Asteroid 2012 TC4, An asteroid the size of a house will pass very near the Earth today, scientists have warned. But of course, that is very close in space terms – they insist there is no risk of actually hitting our planet. The asteroid 2012 TC4 will pass just 59,000 miles – about a quarter of the distance to the moon – when it makes its closest point today, Fox News reported.
The asteroid was discovered by astronomers on October 4 and is around 56 feet across.
‘Small asteroid 2012 TC4 will safely pass Earth Oct 12 at just .25 the distance to our moon’s orbit,’ scientists with NASA’s Asteroid Watch programme wrote in a Twitter update this week.
On average, the moon’s orbit is about 238,000 miles.
The asteroid is large enough to be seen by amateur astronomers using a small telescope,the website Spaceweather.com claimed.
Near-Earth flybys of small asteroids such as 2012 TC4 pass inside the orbit of the moon fairly often, Asteroid Watch scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California told Fox.
The asteroid was discovered by astronomers on October 4 and is around 56 feet across.
‘Small asteroid 2012 TC4 will safely pass Earth Oct 12 at just .25 the distance to our moon’s orbit,’ scientists with NASA’s Asteroid Watch programme wrote in a Twitter update this week.
On average, the moon’s orbit is about 238,000 miles.
The asteroid is large enough to be seen by amateur astronomers using a small telescope,the website Spaceweather.com claimed.
Near-Earth flybys of small asteroids such as 2012 TC4 pass inside the orbit of the moon fairly often, Asteroid Watch scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California told Fox.
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