Massive Asteroid Zooms Past Earth with a Surprise Moon
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NASA/JPL-Caltech(NEW YORK) — The first images showing an asteroid whizzing past Earth on Monday reveal the mountain-sized mass brought with it a surprise moon.
Asteroid 2004 BL86 made its closest approach to Earth on Monday morning, coming within 745,000 miles — about 3.1 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
The first images released by NASA show the asteroid has a moon measuring about 230 feet wide. As many as 150 asteroids have a companion moon, with some even having two, according to NASA.
While the latest asteroid pass was not visible to the naked eye, it brought with it plenty of excitement as it made what is believed to be its closest brush with humanity for the next two centuries.
The next time an asteroid will brush this closely past Earth will be in 2027 when asteroid 1999 AN10 zooms by our planet.
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