(2022 FD1 orbit / NASA)
Astronomers discovered the asteroid 2022 FD1 the night of March 24-25 and it flew past the Earth at a distance of about eight thousand kilometers.
The diameter of the object is about two to 3 meters, even if it hit our planet, it would most likely almost completely burn up in the atmosphere.
It is extremely rare for astronomers to discover small potentially dangerous asteroids in advance, before they are near the Earth or enter the planet's atmosphere.
Asteroid 2022 EB5, discovered in mid-March, was only the fifth on this list.
At the same time, bodies about 10-15 meters in size (like the Chelyabinsk) can cause significant damage, even if they are almost completely destroyed in the atmosphere.
The asteroid that flew past the Earth today was first discovered by astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky, who worked at the Piskestetö observation station.
The asteroid hit the frame late in the evening on March 24th.
Then the data of the Hungarian observer was confirmed by colleagues from Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Britain and other countries.
At 11:04 GMT on March 25, the Minor Planet Center issued a circular confirming the discovery, where instead of the provisional designation Sar2594, the object was assigned the index 2022 FD1.
Calculations show that this body is from 1.7 to 3.8 meters in size (about the size of a car).
It already approached the Earth in September 2013 and will approach again in May 2024.
However, the same extremely close approach as this time is not expected in the near future - the asteroid will pass at a distance of 30 million kilometers.
This Friday, at approximately 09:15 GMT, the asteroid flew at a distance of 14.8 thousand kilometers from the center of the Earth
That is, approximately 8.4 thousand kilometers from the earth's surface - this is more than half orbits of GPS navigation satellites.
Astronomers note that this close date is also interesting because it was a total eclipse of the asteroid - it completely plunged into the shadow of the Earth.
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