Newly discovered sneaky little asteroid set to cruise by Earth

NASA is tracking around 20,000 near-Earth asteroids, and that quantity grows on a regular basis thanks to house rocks like 2020 GH2, a newly discovered asteroid set to stroll by our planet early within the morning Pacific time on Wednesday. 

The International Astronomical Union issued a Minor Planet Electronic Circular on Saturday confirming the asteroid’s discovery.

The Virtual Telescope Project in Italy pulled off the spectacular feat of snapping a picture of 2020 GH2 on April 12. The asteroid seems as a vivid dot amongst streaks of stars. “This is an unimaginable seize, because the {hardware} tracked this shifting goal to perfection for a very long time,” wrote the project’s founder Gianluca Masi in a release on Tuesday.

The asteroid measures in at an estimated 40 to 100 toes (13 to 30 meters) in diameter. It will come inside roughly 220,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) of Earth, which locations it nearer than the moon. That’s nearly an area snuggle, but it surely’s nonetheless a a lot protected distance.

GH2 illustrates how beforehand unknown near-Earth objects seem on our horizon with shocking regularity. This asteroid’s closeness units it other than among the different rocks we have discovered on brief discover. There’s nothing to fear about right here, although. This asteroid will thoughts its personal enterprise and head on out of our house neighborhood very quickly.