An asteroid the size of a pickup truck skimmed Earth’s atmosphere Friday, setting the record for the closest one in history to buzz the planet without actually striking it.
NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System tweeted Monday that the asteroid, which zoomed within 240 miles of Earth’s surface, measured between 16 feet and 32 feet.
ATLAS discovers asteroid 2020 VT4, a 5-10 meter asteroid that passed within 240 miles of the Earth's surfacehttps://t.co/QaDGnYKITPhttps://t.co/0c0XUJAiDF
— ATLAS Project (@fallingstarIfA) November 16, 2020
According to the Center for Near Earth Object Studies, the arm of NASA that monitors asteroid and comet orbits, 2020 VT4 passed by Earth on Nov. 13.
NASA declined to deem the near-miss “potentially hazardous” on its approach, however, because near-Earth objects typically measuring fewer than 460 feet in diameter are not considered a threat, the Miami Herald reported.
2020 QG, a similar-sized asteroid, flew within 2,000 miles of Earth in August, setting the prior record for closest proximity of a near-Earth object to the planet’s surface, Fox News reported.
Cox Media Group
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