Newly discovered asteroid 2018 WA1 flew past Earth at 0.65 LD
Featured image: Asteroid 2018 WA1 orbit diagram. 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. Credit: Minor Planet Center
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 WA1 flew past Earth at 0.65 LD / 0.00168 AU (251 324 km / 156 165 miles) on November 13, 2018.
The asteroid was first observed at Mt. Lemmon Survey on November 16, three days after it made closest approach to our planet.
It belongs to the Atira group of asteroids and has an estimated diameter between 2.6 and 5.9 m (8.5 and 19 feet).
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters | Close-Approach Data ]
This is the 67th known asteroid to fly by Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year and 11th this month.
Image credit: TW. Valid 12:15 UTC, November 24, 2018
Reference
Asteroid 2018 WA1 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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