Asteroid 2020 JA the size of a bus today safely flies past Earth
US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — A newly discovered bus-sized asteroid fly safely near the Earth on May 3 inside the Moon’s orbit.
Asteroid 2020 JA will pass at a distance of about 238,000 kilometers. This is approximately 0.62 distances between the Earth and the Moon. The distance to the moon is on average about 385,000 km.
The asteroid 2020 JA has a width of 9.6 to 22 meters, according to the NASA Near Earth Research Center. NASA’s Asteroid Watch widget calculated the diameter of the asteroid to be about 12 meters and compared its size with a city bus.
NASA representatives say that small asteroids, such as 2020 JA, fly around the Earth several times a month and usually do not pose a threat to our planet.
Scientists from the NASA Planetary Defense Coordination Directorate regularly monitor near-Earth objects, such as comets and asteroids, in search of potential threats to our planet. To date, astronomers have discovered 22,776 near-Earth objects, more than 95% of them were discovered in NASA-funded research, the agency said.
According to NASA, new asteroids, such as 2020 JA, are constantly detected at a speed of 30 asteroids per day.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.
