To put that in context, the moon is a quarter of a million miles away. Asteroid 2013 TX68 is pretty small, thankfully – and astronomers haven’t precisely defined its orbit yet, so it COULD pass as far away as 9 million miles, according to EarthSky.org. Astronomers say there’s no danger it will actually hit us – but if it does fly by at 11,000 miles, it will fly underneath some communications satellites.
Asteroid 2013 TX68 is estimated to be about 100 feet in diameter, NASA says. By comparison, the asteroid that broke up in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, three years ago was approximately 65 feet (20 meters) wide. If an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 were to enter Earth’s atmosphere, it would likely produce an air burst with about twice the energy of the Chelyabinsk event. FULL REPORT
