Asteroid pass to be close, but we’re safe

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. » Another asteroid is headed our way — the second this week— but there’s no need to worry.

The newly discovered space rockwill passwithin 39,000 miles of Earth this afternoon. That’s less than one-fifth the distance to the moon.

Designated 2018 CB, the asteroid is an estimated 50 feet to 130 feet in size, possibly bigger than the one that exploded over Russia five years ago this month.

Themanager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies , Paul Chodas, said asteroids this size usuallydon’t come thisclose— just once or twice a year.

While today’s close approach isn’t a huge deal, Chodas said in an email, “it is a reminder that asteroids can pass very close to our planet and it’s important that we find these objects when they do get close.”

It’s the second time this week for such an event. On Tuesday, an asteroid passed within 114,000 miles, slightly more than halfway to the moon.

Both of this week’s asteroids were discovered Feb. 4 by astronomers at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. Last year, more than 2,000 previously unknown near-Earth asteroids were discovered, according to Chodas.

A whopper asteroid named Apophis — estimated at 1,000 feet — will pass at just one-tenth the distance between Earth and the moon in 2029.