Asteroid 2018 CF2 flew past Earth at 0.25 LD, one day before discovery
Featured image: Featured image: The green line indicates the object's apparent motion relative to the Earth, and the bright green marks are the object's location at approximately one-hour intervals. The Moon's orbit is grey. The blue arrow points in the direction of Earth's motion and the yellow arrow points toward the Sun. Credit: Minor Planet Center.
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 CF2 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.25 LD / 0.00065 AU (~97 238 km / 60 421 miles) on February 6, 2018, one day before its discovery. This is the 4th closest known asteroid to flyby Earth since the start of the year.
2018 CF2 belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter of 6.6 – 15 m (21.6 – 49.2 feet). It was first observed at Mt. Lemon Survey on February 7, 2018, and it flew past us at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 13.54 km/s at 19:16 UTC on February 6.
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Physical Parameters | Close-Approach Data ]
This is the 10th of 13 known asteroids to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year. It was also the first of two such asteroids on February 6, just 57 minutes before 2018 CC.
The list of all known less than 1 lunar distance asteroid flybys since the start of the year (valid 15:54 UTC, February 11):
Data provided by CNEOS. Click here for a larger image.
Orbit diagram animations can be found here.
Reference:
Asteroid 2018 CF2 at Minor Planet Center; at CNEOS
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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