A small asteroid the size of a city bus zoomed between Earth and the moon's orbit Friday, just days after its discovery, but it never posed a threat to our planet, NASA says.
The asteroid 2012 BX34 passed within 36,750 miles (59,044 kilometers) of Earth when it made its closest approach at 10:30 a.m. ET. The space rock is about 37 feet (11 meters) wide and would have broken apart in Earth's atmosphere long before it reached the ground, if it had reached the planet at all, NASA scientists said.
"Asteroid 2012 BX34 is small," astronomers with NASA's Asteroid Watch at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
Yes NASA but haven't you forgotten to tell us about the Asteroid that is actually due to "pass" very ,very close on of all days 21st December 2012.....GULP
an asteroid will come very close to earth on December 21, 2012. This asteroid is called Toutatis, and it will pass what is, in astrological terms, quite close to the earth. It will be, at its closest, about 4,140,000 miles from the earth. That’s about 18 times the distance of the earth to the moon. As you can see, while this is close in astrological terms, it’s not really that close to the earth, and scientists do not consider it a "serious" threat at all. It will not hit the earth. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t asteroids out there that scientists haven’t noticed yet that will pass close to the earth, but so far, this isn’t the case.
However, while the asteroid Toutatis "may" not hit the earth in 2012, there is an asteroid that will come much closer in April of 2027. This asteroid, which has been named Apophis, will actually be less than 22,000 miles from the earth. In fact, scientists have plotted its course as passing between the earth and the moon. What effect will this have on the earth? No one is certain at the moment, but it could cause some significant issues, especially if something causes the asteroid to go slightly off course. It could impact earth if that occurs. However, again, this is an asteroid that will not be near earth until 2027; it’s not the same as the one featured in the many asteroid 2012 theories.
