Car-sized asteroid gives Earth a super-close shave, says report
WASHINGTON, 17 days ago
An asteroid the size of a car recently made a scarily close pass by Earth. Dubbed Asteroid 2024 GJ2, this space rock was only discovered on April 9, few days before its near-Earth encounter on April 12.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the 2024 GJ2 is around 3 metres in size and was discovered on Tuesday by the Pan-Starrs 2 telescope in Hawaii, US.
Astronomers have calculated that the space rock will graze by Earth at a mere-12,000-mile distance — that's just three percent the distance between the Earth and the moon. 2024 GJ2 measures between 2.5 and 5 metres (8.2 and 16 feet), stated ESA.
While NASA regularly monitors the skies for approaching asteroids, it somehow missed 2020 QG.
Speaking to Business Insider, Paul Chodas, the director of NASA’s Centre for Near Earth Object Studies, said: “The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun. We didn't see it coming."
