Two flew past Earth asteroid the size of a skyscraper – RIA Novosti

11:53 25.04.2016

(updated: 15:58 25.04.2016 )

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MOSCOW, April 25 – RIA Novosti . Today, at three o’clock and six o’clock in the morning, it flew past Earth asteroid two fairly large sizes of 490 and 540 meters. Celestial bodies missed our planet at a distance of seven and ten million kilometers, according to the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union.

The first asteroid, which flew past Earth at midnight GMT, was discovered in 2003 by American astronomers working Observatory with Lincoln. Its dimensions are calculated inaccurately enough and constitute, by various estimates, from 170 to 540 meters.

Today 2003 KO2 night approached the Earth at a distance of 6.9 million kilometers, flying from the planet at a distance, which corresponds to distances of 18 between the Moon and our planet. He received an index 2003 KO2, and today belongs to the class of potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA).

In itself, the presence of 2003 KO2 in this list does not mean that his chances of a collision with Earth is very high – this list includes all the asteroids that now or in the future will approach Earth at a distance of 0.05 astronomical units (7.5 million kilometers) and have a large enough size -. 150 meters and more

His “companion” was another relatively large near-Earth asteroids – 2016 FE1, outdoor Catalina sky Survey this year. He has a comparable size – from 160 to 490 meters, but this is a minor threat to life on Earth – the risk of falling is millionths of a percent (minus 8.11 on the Palermo scale)

This heavenly body flew further. from Earth – asteroid missed the planet at a distance of ten million kilometers (26 distance between the Earth and the Moon)

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