A larger asteroid 2023 BU passed close to Earth. It was discovered a few days ago, and it flew past - closer than some satellites.
2023 BU, the size of a minibus, passed over South America at 1:30 a.m. on January 27 at an altitude of 3.600 km, its closest point of contact with the blue planet.
It flew past the Earth much closer than the height (about 36.000 km) at which geostationary, or telecommunication satellites are located.
This type of satellite moves in sync with the rotation of the Earth on its axis, so it appears to be stationary over a certain point on the equator. However, it should be noted that most satellites orbit the Earth at altitudes between several hundred and 2.000 kilometers.
The asteroid was discovered on January 21 by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov from his MARGO observatory in Crimea, and then many experts around the world cast their eyes on it in order to determine its trajectory more precisely.
Although it was an extremely close encounter, NASA estimated on January 26 that there was no reason to panic because it had no chance of hitting the Earth.
Even if it came much closer, most of the asteroid would have burned up in the atmosphere, and only some of its pieces would have fallen to Earth as meteorites.
NASA's impact assessment system called Scout, which is part of the JPL project, analyzed all available data on the orbit of 2023 BU and determined that it would only be a "very close pass".
"Scout very quickly dismissed the possibility of an impact. However, he found that the asteroid will come extremely close to Earth. In fact, this is one of the closest recorded passes of a space body close to Earth," said the engineer who developed the Scout project, David Farnoćija.
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