Asteroid 2014 HL129 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 292 300 km (roughly 76% of the average distance between the Earth and the Moon), slightly before 8.15 am GMT on Saturday 3 May 2014. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, and had it done so it would have presented little danger. 2014 HL129 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 4-13 m (that is to say a spherical object with the same volume would have a diameter of 4-13 m) and such an object would be expected to break up in the Earth's atmosphere 28-42.5 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the planet's surface.
The calculated orbit of 2014 HL129. JPL Small Body Database Browser.
2014 HL129 was discovered on 28 April 2014 (5 days before its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, which is located in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2014 HL129 implies that it was the 3237th asteroid (asteroid L129) discovered in the second half of April 2014 (period 2014 H).
2014 HL129 has an 528 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit that takes it from 0.96 AU from the Sun (i.e. 96% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.59 AU from the Sun (i.e. 159% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, slightly more than distance at which the planet Mars orbits the Sun). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer).
See also...
Asteroid 2014 HP132 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 6 914 000 km (a little under 18 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon) slightly after 11.00 pm on Thursday...
Witnesses reported seeing a fireball over southern Ontario slightly after 4.15 pm local time on Sunday 4 May 2014. The incident was also captures on a number of cameras, and Peter Brown of the Meteor Physics Group at Western University has suggested that it was probably caused by a 50-100 cm asteroid exploding in the upper atmosphere due to friction. Such an object would cause an...
steroid 2014 HL2 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 3 372 000 km (a little less than nine times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly after 10.05 pm GMT on Monday...
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