Asteroid 2024 BJ, which astronomers detected earlier this month, will be live-streamed as it zooms within 220,000 miles of Earth, or closer to us than the average distance to the moon.

An asteroid discovered earlier this month will reach its closest point to Earth on Saturday (Jan. 27), when it will soar through the sky at a distance closer to us than the moon.

You can watch the airplane-size asteroid as it sails just 220,000 miles (354,000 kilometers) from Earth — more than nine tenths of the average distance between our planet and the moon — on a Virtual Telescope Project live feed from 12:15 p.m. EST. The flying space rock will reach its closest point to Earth at 12:30 p.m. EST, according to NASA.

  • Rhaedas@kbin.social
    2·
    10 months ago

    That orbit map shows it outside the Moon’s orbit. Maybe the actual lunar orbit is a lot more elliptical than represented here?