Whoa! Another asteroid whizzes past Earth hours after discovery

Another asteroid whizzes past Earth overnight

Overnight on March 24-25, 2022, another small asteroid raced toward Earth, unseen until hours before its closest approach. Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky, same astronomer who first spotted asteroid 2022 EB5 earlier this month hours before it hit Earth near Iceland, found this new asteroid, too. He caught it just hours before it sped by Earth. This asteroid is labeled Sar2594. Its close encounter with Earth came at 8:10 UTC or 3:10 a.m. CDT.

This time, instead of a collision, the space rock slipped through Earth’s shadow.

It passed at a distance of about 5,400 miles (8,700 km). That’s in contrast to the moon’s distance of 238,900 miles (384,000 km).

Sar2594 is categorized as a Near-Earth Object, or NEO. It raced by at about 40,265 miles an hour (18 km/s).

Tweets of discovery

Almost. Again :-) My newly discovered asteroid #Sar2594 will pass cca. 15,100 km from Earth around 09:10 UT. Minus Earth radius = 8,700 km above the surface. Almost :-)

— Krisztián Sárneczky (@sarneczky) March 25, 2022

Total NEO eclipse! My newly discovered asteroid #Sar2594 will hit the Earth's shadow around 08:10 UT. pic.twitter.com/rQleGtSdo5

— Krisztián Sárneczky (@sarneczky) March 25, 2022

In about 2 hours, newly-discovered Sar2594 will pass through Earth's shadow. This was discovered by @sarneczky, the person who also discovered that 2022 EB5 would strike Earth near Iceland earlier this month. pic.twitter.com/9omzhcSv1H

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) March 25, 2022

Updates on Sar2594

Sar2594 now has an official designation: 2022 FD1. Sárneczky says the asteroid is about 2-4 meters in size. This could put it in the running for the smallest asteroid known. The current record holder is 2015 TC25, which is approximately 6 feet or 2 meters in diameter.

The asteroid’s flyby of Earth changed its course. Sárneczky and Tony Dunn share charts and simulations of 2022 FD1’s inclination:

Significant change of the inclination of my new close approacher #2022FD1 (aka #Sar2594) during its flyby: i=9,4 deg -> 4,5 deg. (data: @AdrienCoffinet, graphics: @MinorPlanetCtr) pic.twitter.com/hQeKqG935d

— Krisztián Sárneczky (@sarneczky) March 25, 2022

Newly-discovered #asteroid 2022 FD1 flew past Earth, passing <8500 km above the S. Pacific Ocean while flying through Earth's shadow. Its inclination lowered from 9.44° to 4.49° . This is @sarneczky's 2nd close asteroid this month. The other one HIT Earth.https://t.co/CS95fRcp5D pic.twitter.com/RkFyPji0xr

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) March 25, 2022

Bottom line: Another asteroid whizzes past Earth hours after discovery. The asteroid, Sar2594, was discovered by the same astronomer, Krisztián Sárneczky, who discovered 2022 EB5, which impacted near Iceland earlier this month.