Asteroid 2018 UL flew past Earth at 0.57 LD
Image credit: 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 half 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.
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 UL flew past Earth at 0.57 LD / 0.00148 AU (221 404 km / 137 574 miles) on October 17, 2018. This is now the 57th known asteroid to fly by Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year and 4th this month. It comes just 2 days before 4th closest asteroid flyby on record.
Asteroid 2018 UL was discovered at Catalina Sky Survey on October 18, 2018, one day after its closest approach.
Its estimated diameter is between 4.1 and 9.1 m (13.4 and 30 feet) and it flew past Earth at 11:34 UTC at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 5.81 km/s.
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters | Close-Approach Data ]
References:
Asteroid 2018 UL at Minor Planet Center; at CNEOS
I'm a dedicated researcher, journalist, and editor at The Watchers. With over 20 years of experience in the media industry, I specialize in hard science news, focusing on extreme weather, seismic and volcanic activity, space weather, and astronomy, including near-Earth objects and planetary defense strategies. You can reach me at teo /at/ watchers.news.
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