An especially huge asteroid passed by Earth especially close on March 15. The flyby was totally protected and didn’t represent any danger to any person or thing on Earth, or to any of our satellites. In any case, asteroid 2021 EQ3 came nearer to Earth than our solitary natural satellite.
Sky surveys and other telescopes spot a space rock passing closer than the moon every few days, on average. The majority of these asteroids are only a few meters across, likely making them no bigger than a bus.
Asteroid 2021 EQ3, notwithstanding, had an expected diameter somewhere in the range of 17 and 38 meters (55 to 124 feet). That makes it about the same size as the meteoroid that pummeled into the atmosphere above Russia in 2013, making a shock wave that extinguished large number of windows in the city of Chelyabinsk below, harming hundreds.
2021 EQ3 passed nearest above us at generally 9:45 p.m. PT, at a distance of around 173,000 miles (278,000 kilometers) – that is 72% of the distance from the Earth to the moon.
This makes 2021 EQ3 the second biggest object to come nearer than the moon in 2021.
It’s likewise different than 2001 FO32, which is an absolute monster with a diameter around a mile. That asteroid passed by on March 21, yet at a distance five times farther away than the moon.
