Asteroid the size of a bus passed by Earth

The 8-meter-long asteroid named 2017 FJ101 passed Earth at a distance of 325,087 km but did not pose any threat.

Asteroid 2017 FJ101 came closer to Earth than the Moon on the evening of March 30. Photo: iStock.

Asteroid 2017 FJ101 was first spotted by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on the summit of the Haleakalā volcano in Maui, Hawaii, USA on March 25, according to Deccan Chronicle. The Moon orbits Earth at a distance of 384,400 km, but this bus-sized object came 59,313 km closer to Earth than the Moon on the evening of March 30.

NASA is working on a series of missions, including an asteroid deflection mission in which a robotic spacecraft would land on an asteroid to create an orbital base for astronauts. A team of NASA experts is in charge of monitoring potential threats in the sky.

According to VNE