Bus-sized asteroid will pass Earth safely

Last Saturday (October 7, 2023), astronomers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope at Haleakala, Hawaii, discovered a bus-sized asteroid headed in the direction of Earth. The asteroid – labeled 2023 TV3 – will safely pass Earth today (Thursday, October 12) – at less than one-quarter the distance to the moon – at 12:52 UTC ( 7:52 am CDT).

The asteroid is approximately 20 to 60 foot (6 to 18 meters) in diameter. That makes it almost as large as the approximately 20-meter Chelyabinsk asteroid that caused an airburst over Russia – breaking windows in six Russian cities and sending some 1,500 people to seek medical treatment, mostly for flying glass – when it exploded in our atmosphere on February 15, 2013.

The asteroid won’t be visible to the eye. And it won’t have any effects on Earth when it passes us at about 42,000 miles (67,500 km) away (the moon averages about 238,800 miles (328,000 km) from Earth). But 2023 TV3 will come close enough that some astro-imagers might be able to pick it up with their equipment.

The fact is, asteroids this size zip past Earth all the time, occasionally coming closer to us than the moon’s orbit.

The 2024 lunar calendars are here! Best Christmas gifts in the universe! Check ’em out here.

Not an unusual occurrence

So it’s not unusual that this asteroid is sweeping past Earth. But – as the 2013 Chelyabinsk event illustrated – we don’t always see them before they sweep past.

NASA describes some of the common asteroids zipping past Earth as bus-sized, house-sized and airplane-sized. Earlier this year, an airplane-sized asteroid also came within one-quarter the distance of the moon to Earth. But we didn’t learn about it until two days afterward.

And a month before that, a bus-sized asteroid sailed past us, followed by a house-sized asteroid just one day later. Both were inside the moon’s orbit.

If you want to keep track of asteroids passing Earth, NASA-JPL has a website listing the next five asteroid close approaches.

Most of the close approaches are much further than the moon.

Asteroid 2023 TV3 on social media

On October 12, newly-discovered #asteroid 2023 TV3, possibly as large as the Chelyabinsk meteor, will pass less than 1/4 the Moon’s distance.
GIF: pic.twitter.com/0Q0FmyIrWl

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) October 10, 2023

Here’s a slower version of its Earth approach during the times it is brighter than mag 17. It shows that Australia and New Zealand have the best views. pic.twitter.com/gkhUCHAben

— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) October 11, 2023

Bottom line: A bus-sized asteroid will safely pass Earth less than 1/4 the distance to the moon at 12:52 UTC (7:52 am CDT) today, October 12, 2023.