Asteroid the size of Gibraltar rock passes by very close to Earth
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/04/19/large-asteroid-pass-close-earth-wednesday/
An asteroid the size of the Gibraltar rock has beee the largest asteroid to come this close to Earth since 2004.
On Wednesday afternoon, the object passed close to our planet, zooming by at a distance of just over a million miles
(1.8 million km), but with no chance of impact, according to Nasa scientists.
Smaller asteroids regularly come closer than this , but 2014 J025, discovered in May 2014, will be the largest asteroid
to come this close to the planet since 2004, flying by at only about 4.6 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon,
1.1 million miles (1.8 million km).
The asteroid is estimated to be between one-quarter and three-quarters of a mile (600-1,400 meters) wide and twice as
reflective as the Moon. Having several years of data on the asteroid's trajectory gives scientists the ability to predict
its path very confidently, he added. The approach of J025 will be the asteroid's closest for at least the next 500 years.
In 2004, the 3.1-mile (5 km) wide asteroid Toutatis passed about four lunar distances, or just under a million miles
(1.6 million km) from Earth.
