Asteroid safely passes by Earth Wednesday
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, March 5, 2014, 5:15 PM -
On Wednesday at around 4 p.m. EST, a small asteroid safely passed by the Earth.
At its nearest approach, it was about 350,000 km from the planet. That's closer than the moon, which is 384,400 km away.
The space rock, dubbed 2014 DX110, is about 30 metres across.
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This sort of encounter isn't anything out of the ordinary. NASA Planetary Science Division spokesman Lindley Johnson told USA Today that 21 small asteroids ranging in size from 1 to 30 meters have come closer to Earth than DX110 in the past year alone.
You can see the asteroid for yourself in a recording of a live stream filmed earlier today (skip ahead to the 10:50 mark).
If you missed Wednesday's asteroid, there's no need to worry: “Near-Earth Asteroid 2014 EC” will zoom past our planet on 6 Mar. 2014 at 19:30 UT.
You'll be able to catch a live stream of the event online at the Virtual Telescope Project.
If asteroids aren't your thing, there are plenty other celestial events taking place this month.
Here's more from NASA:
