An asteroid the size of a delivery truck will pass close to Earth on Thursday night, one of the closest such encounters ever recorded.
According to the agency, the asteroid will pass 3,600 kilometers above the southern tip of South America, 10 times closer than the group of communication satellites orbiting above.
Likewise, NASA insisted that there is no possibility of the asteroid hitting Earth.
The asteroid was discovered on Saturday by Gennady Borisov, the same amateur astronomer in Crimea who discovered an interstellar comet in 2019. Within days, astronomers around the world made dozens of observations, allowing them to refine the asteroid’s orbit.
In addition, NASA’s impact risk assessment system, called Scout, quickly ruled out a collision.
