An asteroid between 15 and 40 meters in size, named 2018 CB, will pass unusually close to Earth this Friday, less than a week after being noticed by the Catalina Sky Survey telescope in Arizona, United States. The 2018 CB will pass 64,000 kilometers from Earth, which translates into a fifth of the distance between the planet and the Moon.
"Asteroids of this size do not usually get so close to our planet, maybe only once or twice a year," said the manager of the Center for Near-Earth Studies of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). by its acronym in English), Paul Chodas.
Despite the proximity NASA has not alerted about possible dangers, although they will keep their attention on the trajectory of 2018 CB in case there were any errors in their calculations.
Astronomers usually discover the passage of asteroids in advance, however, this time was imperceptible until Sunday, February 4. Last year, more than 2,000 asteroids were detected that previously were not known to happen so close to Earth, according to Chodas.