Stargazers were on standby while an asteroid from an airplane made a very close flight from Earth overnight, but three more space rocks must graze the planet’s backyard before finishing Tuesday.
Asteroid 2021 EQ3 fired 12 km per second or about 43 000 km / h past the earth at 21:45 on Monday night.
About the same size as the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged more than 7,200 buildings in southwestern Russia in 2013, the 2121 EQ3 2021 passed the planet at a distance of 269,000 km (for comparison, the distance between the Earth and the Moon 384,400 km).
Before March 16, however, amateur and professional astronomers can expect more space salutes.
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The nine meters (1.5 times as big as a giraffe) 2021 EJ3 will pass the planet at only 759,610 km followed shortly thereafter by the 16 meters (four times the length of a VW Beetle) 2021 EW3, at 2.4 million kilometers and the 34 meters (half the wingspan of a 747) 2021 DT, at just over seven million kilometers.
This is just a prelude to the visit of the truly monstrous, asteroid with the Golden Gate Bridge size 2001 FO32, which will pass the earth on March 21.
UPDATE: The previous version incorrectly stated that the asteroid had passed the planet at a distance of a seventh of the distance between the earth and the moon ‘. The text has been updated to indicate that the correct figure is seven-tenths of the distance between the earth and the moon.
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