NASA may have updated its plan to protect the planet from asteroid strikes, but a space rocket the size of a pickup truck cut past the planet at a distance of about 1,830 miles on Sunday, the closest ever recorded.
And the space agency did not see it until it happened.
The asteroid, known as 2020 QG (formerly known as ZTF0DxQ), flew past the Earth from the direction of the sun, according to Business Insider, which first reported the news. The news release quoted a tweet from amateur astronomer Tony Dunn.
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“Newly discovered asteroid ZTF0DxQ went through less than 1/4 Earth diameter yesterday, making it the closest known flyby not to hit our planet,” wrote Dunn, who is also the creator of orbitsimulator.com.
The object was discovered about six hours after it flew past the Southern Hemisphere at a speed of 27,600 mph, Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told the news release. “We did not see it coming.”
2020 QG is considered a Near-Earth Object (NEO) given its proximity to Earth. Given the size (between 6 feet and 18 feet wide), however, it is not considered a “potentially dangerous” NEO and would probably be broken up in the atmosphere.
The size of the object was estimated by the Sormano Astronomical Observatory.
“Potentially dangerous” NEOs are defined as space objects that come within 0.05 astronomical units and measure more than 460 feet in diameter, according to NASA. According to a 2018 report compiled by Planetary.org, there are more than 18,000 NEOs.
Fox News has reached out to NASA with a request for comment.
This is not the first time in recent memory that NASA has a NEO similar to 2020 QG. In February, researchers in the Netherlands discovered 11 “potentially dangerous objects” that are not on NASA’s list of “potentially dangerous” near-Earth objects, using advanced artificial intelligence.
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NASA unveiled a 20-page plan in 2018 that details the steps the US needs to take to be better prepared for NEOs, such as asteroids and comets coming within 30 million miles of the planet.
A recent survey showed that Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impact on sending humans back to the moon or to Mars.
In April 2019, NASA awarded a $ 69 million contract to SpaceX, the space exploration company led by Elon Musk, to help it with asteroid deflection through its DART mission.
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NASA Director Jim Bridenstine said in April 2019 that an asteroid strike is not something to be taken for granted and is perhaps the greatest threat to the Earth.
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