Asteroid 1998 OR2’s 6 million km miss

Apr 30, 2020 | Asteroids

Asteroid 1998 OR2’s 6 million km miss
This GIF, composed of observations by the Virtual Telescope Project, shows asteroid 1998 OR2 (the central dot) as it traversed the constellation Hydra five days before its closest approach to Earth. CREDIT: Dr. Gianluca Masi (Virtual Telescope Project)

Yesterday morning a 2 km wide asteroid, 1998 OR2 flew past us at 19,461 miles per hour at a distance of 6.2 million kilometers. This distance meant it was close enough for scientists to get cool data, but also more than 15 times farther away than the moon, and thus not a danger. While we aren’t seeing a bunch of cool images yet, I for one look forward to the new science that will come from this fairly large miss.

More:

Asteroid 1998 OR2 to Safely Fly Past Earth This Week (NASA JPL)

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