Asteroid (388495)
2008 TZ3 passed by the Earth at a distance of 5 046 000 km
(13.1 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 3.37% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly
before 10.40 am GMT on Thursday 5 May 2016. There was no danger of
the asteroid hitting us, though had it done so it would have presented a
considerable threat. (388495) 2008 TZ3 has an estimated equivalent
diameter of 160-490 m (i.e. a spherical body with the same mass would be 160-490 m in diameter), and an object of this size
would pass through the atmosphere and directly impact the ground with a
force of about 200-5000 megatons (about 1200-300 000 times the
explosive energy of
the Hiroshima bomb), causing devastation over a wide area and creating a
crater 2.5-7.5 km across, and resulting in global climatic problems
that
could last for decades or even centuries.
(388495) 2008 TZ3 was discovered on 6 October 2008 by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on
Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2008 TZ3 implies that the asteroid was the 100th object (object Z3)
discovered in the first half of October 2008 (period 2008 T), while
the designation 388495 implies that it was 388 495th asteroid ever
discovered (asteroids are not given this longer designation immediately
to avoid naming double or false sightings).
(388495) 2008 TZ3 has a 732 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit that
takes it from 0.97 AU from the Sun (i.e. 97% of the average distance at
which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 2.21 AU from the Sun (i.e. 221% of
the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, considerably
outside orbit of the planet 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 the
last thought to have happened in April 2014 and the next predicted in May 2018. As
an asteroid possibly larger than 150 m in diameter that occasionally
comes within 0.05 AU of the Earth, (388495) 2008 TZ3 is also classified
as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.
See also...
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the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.56% of
the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before 6.10 am GMT on Monday 2 May 2016. There was...
Asteroid 2016 GD241 passes the Earth. Asteroid
2016 GD241 passed by the Earth at a distance of 7 643 000 km
(19.9 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or
5.12% of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly
before 4.30 am GMT on Moday 2 May...
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