VIDEO: Asteroid Size of Bus Zoomed Past Earth Thursday Night, First Discovered March 25
By Space Coast Daily // March 31, 2017
passed Earth within 186,000 miles
ABOVE VIDEO: Bruce Betts of the Planetary Society told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that scientists need to be looking more, particularly for smaller asteroids. He said we must improve search techniques as well.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – An asteroid 2 feet wide came closer to Earth than the moon last night. The object, named 2017 FJ101, passed Earth within 186,000 miles.
According to experts, the near-Earth asteroid posed no threat to our planet or the moon. Bruce Betts, of the Planetary Society, said that the asteroid was on the smaller side and little of it would have made it to the ground.
The asteroid was first discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, located on the summit of the Haleakalā volcano on Maui, Hawaii on March 25.
The moon orbits around 238,855 miles away from Earth, but this bus-sized asteroid came around 37,000 miles closer to the Earth than the moon last night.
Scientists have been working on how to deal with the threat of an asteroid, which could hit us with little or no warning.
The White House has released its National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy, an official document describing the plan if a meteor or asteroid was to head our way, and it shows we are under-prepared.
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