Huge Asteroid to Pass Closely to Earth on September 1st, 2017
BY: Anthony Bouchard
An artist’s impression of a large asteroid passing by the Earth. Image Credit: Marcelo6366/Pixabay
Don’t panic, but a massive asteroid more than 2.7 miles across is about to get up-close and personal with the Earth.
While it sounds alarming when we put it that way, NASA assures all of us that the asteroid will harmlessly pass the Earth on September 1st.
The asteroid goes by the name Florence, and it’s one of the largest near-Earth asteroids that come within hair-raising distances of our planet every so often.
“While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence will on September 1, all of those were estimated to be smaller,” said the manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), Paul Chodas.
“Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began.”