Asteroid 2015 BE passed by the Earth at a distance of 11 890 000 km
(30.91 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 7.9 %
of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), at about 8.25 am GMT on Friday 30 January 2015. There was no danger of the
asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented only a
minor threat. 2015 BE has an estimated equivalent diameter of 21-65 m
(i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume
would be 21-65 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be
expected to break up in the atmosphere between 22 and 4 km above the
ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.
The calculated orbit of 2015 BE JPL Small Body Database.
2015 BD511 was discovered on 16 January 2015 (fourteen days before its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Hawaii's PANSTARRS telescope
on Mount Haleakala on Maui. The designation 2015 BE implies that it
was the 5th asteroid (asteroid E) discovered in the second half
of January 2015 (period 2015 B).
2015
BE has a 788 day year orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted
at an angle of 14.5° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it
from 0.92 AU from the Sun (i.e. 92% of the average distance at which the
Earth orbits the Sun) to 2.42 AU from the
Sun (i.e. 242% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the
Sun, considerably outside the orbit of Mars). 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 fairly common, with another predicted for June this year.
See also...
Asteroid 2015 BD511 passes the Earth. Asteroid 2015 BD511 passed by the Earth at a distance of 1 714 000 km
(4.47 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 1.1 %
of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before
0.50 am GMT on Friday 30 January...
Comet C/2014 Q1 (Lovejoy) reached its perihelion (the closest point on
its orbit to the Sun) on Friday 30 January 2015, when it will be 1.29 AU
from the Sun....
Asteroid (162004) 1991 VE passed by the Earth at a distance of about 15
600 000 km (40.6 times the average distance between the Earth and the
Moon, or 10.4% of the average distance between the Sun and the Earth),
slightly after 3.30 am GMT on Saturday 17 January 2015. There was no
danger of the asteroid hitting us, though were it to do so it would have
presented a serious threat. (162004) 1991 VE has an...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.