Two small asteroids pass within moon’s distance today

Earth gets a double asteroid flyby today. Both asteroids are newly discovered. Asteroids 2011 GW9 and 2011 GP28 will zip through the Earth-Moon system at a distance from Earth of 77,000 km and 192,000 km, respectively. Asteroid 2011 GW9 was closest at 12:53 a.m. EDT this morning, and 2011 GP28 zoomed past at 3:36 p.m. EDT – just minutes before we posted this.

Both are ten-meter class asteroids two to three times smaller than the Tunguska impactor of 1908.

There is no danger of a collision.

It’s notable that both asteroids come closer to Earth than the moon, whose mean distance of 384,400 kilometers away (about 239,000 miles – or nearly a quarter million miles).

Via SpaceWeather.com, via Wired

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