Forget Nascar, there's an asteroid that will hurtle past the Earth at more than 33,000 miles per hour. It will be a mere ~2,240 miles away, about the distance between California to Florida.
Asteroid will pass Earth tonight
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The space rock, named BU 2023, was first spotted hurtling toward Earth on Saturday (Jan. 21) by famed Crimea-based astronomer and astrophotographer Gennadiy Borisov, the same man who in 2018 found the first interstellar comet, which now bears his name, Borisov.
The asteroid BU 2023 is only 11.5 to 28 feet (3.5 to 8.5 meters) wide, which means it would pose no risk to our planet, even if the trajectories of the two bodies were to intersect. However, observations of BU 2023 by other astronomers that followed Borisov's discovery confirmed that the asteroid will miss our planet by a small but safe margin of 2,240 miles (3,600 kilometers). The rock will make its closest approach above the southern tip of South America today (Jan. 26) at 7:27 p.m. ESTha(0027 GMT on Jan. 27), according to NASA.
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