Whether they’re whizzing by in one piece, or breaking into several small parts past Mars, asteroids have been a source of fascination for astronomers over the last few months thanks to advancing technology.
Scientists noticed three asteroids of various sizes glide past Earth this week, and are still learning about an asteroid that inexplicably broke apart over the last few months.
On Wednesday, a 100-foot-wide and a 25-foot-wide asteroid zipped by Earth. On Thursday, another asteroid, also about 25 feet wide, skirted by the bottom of the Earth. All three were within the distance of the moon, according to Paul Chodas, senior scientist in the Near-Earth Object program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“It was a flurry of close approaches within a couple of days,” he said.
The three asteroids are not in the same orbit and are unrelated.
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