Asteroid 2015 CT13 passed by the Earth at a distance of 708 200 km (1.84
times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.47 % of the average distance between
the Earth and the Sun), slightly after 9.25 am GMT on Wednesday 11
February 2015. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though
had it done so it would have presented only a minor threat. 2015 CT13
has an estimated equivalent diameter of 12-39 m (i.e. it is estimated
that a spherical object with the same volume would be 12-39 m in
diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to break up in
the atmosphere between 30 and 10 km above the ground, with only
fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.
The calculated orbit of 2015 CT13. JPL Small Body Database.
2015 CT13 was discovered on 13 February 2015 by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey,
which is located in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The
designation 2015 CT13 implies that it was the 344th asteroid (asteroid T13)
discovered in the first half of February 2015 (period 2015 C).
2015 CT13 has an 579 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an
angle of 7.79° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from
0.96 AU from the Sun (i.e. 96% of the average distance at which the
Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.75 AU from the Sun (i.e. 175% of the average
distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably more than the
disctance 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). This
means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth are extremely
common, with the last having occurred in Marcg 2007.
See also...
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times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is to
say inside the orbit of the Moon, though the Moon was on the opposite
side of the Earth at the time, or 0.19% of...
Asteroid 2015 BP4 passed by the Earth at a distance of 15 770 000 km
(40.96 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or
10.5 % of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about
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Asteroid 2015 BM510 passed by the Earth at a distance of 5 311 000 km
(13.82 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 3.5
% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly
after 9.00 pm GMT on Tuesday 10 February...
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