Asteroid 2023 BU about to pass Earth in one of closest ever encounters

[Rick]

Asteroid 2023 BU about to pass Earth in one of closest ever encounters

An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will pass Earth in one of the closest such encounters ever recorded – coming within a tenth of the distance of most communication satellites' orbit.

Nasa said the newly discovered asteroid would pass 2,200 miles (3,600km) above the southern tip of South America at 7.27pm US eastern time on Thursday (12.27am GMT, 11.27am AEDT on Friday)

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/26/asteroid-2023-bu-about-to-pass-earth-in-one-of-closest-ever-encounters

[Rick]

Truck-size asteroid makes one of the tightest fly-bys of Earth ever recorded

A box-truck-sized asteroid has made one of the closest approaches by a near-Earth object ever recorded, brushing past our home world at a distance of a couple of thousand miles on Thursday.

Codenamed 2023 BU, the space rock is estimated to be between 11.5 and 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 metres) across. Although it's fairly sizable, most of the asteroid would burn up in our atmosphere, with any larger surviving parts falling as meteorites, if it were to barrel head-first into Earth.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/27/asteroid_2023_bu/

[Carole]

I thought they were supposed to be detecting these much mire in advance so that future efforts to divert the object could be used if need be. 

Carole

[Rick]

I guess, perhaps, this one was a bit too small to be picked up by the automated search systems. Shows there is still a place for amateurs who can be bothered to search for the unexpected.