Small Asteroid to fly by Earth closer than the Moon

It’s all happening in the skies next week. The third and final Full Moon Supermoon of 2019, the Spring Equinox and now, the close approach of a newly-discovered asteroid on the night between 21 and 22 March.

Asteroid “2019 EA2” first spotted on 9 March has an estimated diameter of 18 to 39 metres and will fly by at a (safe) distance of 0.8 Lunar Units from Earth. That’s 189,923 miles or 0.8 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. It is travelling at a speed of 12,027 miles per hour or 3.3 miles per second. Whoosh!

We love Asteroids. They hold many a secret of the evolution of our universe. Only last month Japan’s probe Hayabusa2 landed on Asteroid Ryugu and successfully harvested a sample which is due to arrive back on earth in 2020.

So hello and goodbye 2019 EA2. See you again in 2131.

via NASA-JPL and EarthSky