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A small asteroid passed just 13,000 miles from the planet’s surface on the morning of Thursday, September, 24th. The asteroid named 2020 SW passed beneath the orbit of many geostationary satellites including the GOES weather satellites!
The asteroid itself is about the size of a school bus or about 15-30 feet wide. At this size, if the rock were to enter the Earth’s atmosphere it would likely just burn up becoming a fireball. Also at a pass this close, Earth’s gravity is expected to change the speed and trajectory of the rock’s path.
While the distance is close, asteroid passes like this aren’t uncommon, "There are a large number of tiny asteroids like this one, and several of them approach our planet as close as this several times every year," said Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
