Asteroid 2019 AE9 flew past Earth at 0.26 lunar distances
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2019 AE9 flew past Earth at a distance of 0.26 LD / 0.00067 AU (100 230 km / 62 280 miles) on January 12, 2019. This is the second known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 LD since the start of the year. It comes just 4 days after very close flyby of 2019 AS5 (0.04 LD).
Asteroid 2019 AE9 was first observed at Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala on January 11, 23 hours before its close approach.
This asteroid belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids.
It has an estimated diameter between 9.9 and 22 m (32.5 and 72.2 feet) and it flew past us at a speed (relative to the Earth) of 19.22 km/s at 11:09 UTC on January 12.
[ Ephemeris | Orbit Diagram | Orbital Elements | Mission Design | Physical Parameters | Close-Approach Data ]
References
Asteroid 2019 AE9 at Minor Planet Center; at CNEOS
Featured image credit: CNEOS
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