2020 SO is a tiny near-Earth asteroid or artificial object discovered by the Pan-STARRS1 survey at the Haleakala Observatory on September 17, 2020. It is currently approaching Earth and its nominal trajectory indicates that it will be temporarily captured by Earth by October 15, 2020. It will enter via the outer Lagrange point L2 and exit via Lagrange point L1. During its geocentric orbit around Earth, 2020 SO will make a close approach to Earth around…
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Small Asteroid FlyBy March 21, 2019
house-sized asteroid was discovered by astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory outside of Tucson, Arizona on March 9, 2019
Read MoreSuccessful touchdown on an asteroid.
the asteroid explorer Hayabusa2 touched down on the surface of the target asteroid Ryugu for sample retrieval
Read MoreDeflecting an Asteroid
Scientists are planning a mission, what they are calling the first planetary defense test. They plan to deflect an asteroid and alter its path.
Read MoreAsteroid 2002 AJ129 to Fly Safely Past Earth Super Bowl Sunday
Asteroid 2002 AJ129 will make a close approach to Earth on Super Bowl Sunday, February 4, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. PST. At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be no closer than 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. 2002 AJ129 is an intermediate-sized near-Earth asteroid, somewhere between 0.3 miles and 0.75 miles across. It was…
Read MoreObject Visits From Beyond Solar System
NASA reported on October 26, 2017 that astronomers have been watching a small body that could be an asteroid, or perhaps a comet, apparently from beyond our solar system, from somewhere in interstellar space. If that is indeed the case, it would be the first interstellar asteroid or comet to be observed and confirmed. The object is currently designated A 2017…
Read MoreBig Asteroid’s Close Flyby on September 1st
On September 1, 2017, Asteroid 3122 Florence will safely pass by our planet at over 18 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.
Read MoreClose Encounter with an Undetected Asteroid
On July 23, 2017, astronomers detected a small asteroid now designated Asteroid 2017 001, three days after it passed by at 1/3 the moon’s distance from the Earth
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