Asteroid flying at 30 times the speed of sound flew by Earth yesterday, says ESA

An asteroid travelling at 30 times the speed of sound flew by Earth yesterday, the European Space Agency (ESA) said today. According to the agency, the asteroid, named 2008 AG33, posed no threat to Earth as it passed by 8 times the distance of the Moon.

The Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOOC), ESA's centre for computing asteroid and comet orbits and their probabilities of Earth impact, has near-real-time access to a global network of telescopes. Using data from these telescopes and observatories around the world, the coordination centre helps evaluate and monitor the threat coming from asteroids in the sky.

An asteroid flying at 30 times the speed of sound flew by Earth yesterday. At about 500 metres in diameter, we’ve known about 2008 AG33 for years, and that it posed no threat to Earth passing by 8 times the distance of the Moon#SpaceSafety#PlanetaryDefence pic.twitter.com/IztvzpEHr4

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) April 29, 2022

Earlier this month, ESA& announced a new Space Safety Centre, a dedicated hub for activities protecting our planet from a raging star, risky asteroids and space debris. The facility provides a dynamic environment where next-generation space-weather capabilities, tools and models will be developed, tested and evaluated in close cooperation with European institutes and industry, the agency said at the launch.