An Asteroid Flew Super Close to Earth Without Any Notice

Did you notice an asteroid, that looked like a small van, float past planet Earth last month? 

It sounds alarming, but the fact is most people barely noticed its existence.  

Could this small asteroid cause potential harm to our planet? How close was it?  

On today’s episode of The Science Briefing, Dr Sophie Calabretto interviewed Jacinta Bowler, a Cosmos Magazine journalist about the exciting science behind asteroids. 

“What’s really interesting with asteroids is that in a lot of cases, it’s literally in the few days before an asteroid hits, or in most cases, has a close miss with Planet Earth, that we find out they actually exist,” Bowler said. 

In this instance, the asteroid named 2023 BU was closer than some satellites. 

“The lowest point of its approach was 3,900 kilometres above Earth and Borisov discovered the asteroid about a week before this closest point,” Bowler said. 

Tune into the full episode of The Science Briefing below…

 Introducing The Science Briefing: a podcast about the science of everything and your new go-to podcast for your snapshot of science news. Hosted by Dr Sophie Calabretto and featuring journalists from Cosmos Magazine. Hear is on theLiSTNR app now.