Astro buffs gear up and get your telescopes ready as tonight is the night you just don’t wanna miss! If you are wondering why we seem so excited about tonight, then here’s a clue. A truck-sized asteroid is going to pass between the Earth and the Moon at around 4:54 UTC on January 24 (10:24 PM IST on January 25).
Asteroid 2017 BX has been nicknamed as ‘Rerun‘ after late actor Fred Berry’s show ‘What’s Happening’. ‘Rerun‘ would be just 162,252 miles away from the Earth, which is nearly 30 percent closer than the Moon, and travel at a speed of 16,600 miles per hour (about 26,700 Km/hr).
Measuring between 13 and 46 feet across, Rerun was discovered on January 20, 2017.
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This is not for the first time that the astronomers have discovered a giant rock passing through the close vicinity of the Earth. Earlier this month, astronomers discovered a gigantic asteroid measuring the size of a 10-storey building making a close shave with our planet at a distance half that of the Moon.
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Asteroid 2017 AG13 was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey and was travelling at a speed of 16 Kilometres per second. Slooh astronomer Eric Feldman said that the asteroid was roughly the same size as a meteor that exploded above the sky in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, which means had the asteroid exploded, it would have had similar effects. It’s expected to pass by the Earth on December 28, 2017, again.
So get ready as the Astro-party coz ‘Rerun‘ is coming home tonight!
