A small asteroid flew very near Earth Tuesday morning (Could 14), simply two days after it was found by astronomers.The asteroid 2024 JN16 is lower than 15 toes (4 meters) extensive — in regards to the dimension of a automobile. It didn’t hit Earth however got here inside a mere 11,500 miles (18,500 kilometers) of our planet’s floor when it zipped by at 5:50 a.m. EDT (0950 GMT) on Tuesday, in accordance with The Digital Telescope Mission. 2024 JN16 was found by novice astronomer Gennadiy Borisov two days in the past utilizing the MARGO Observatory in Nauchnij, Crimea. Associated: Info about asteroidsStill from an animation displaying the shut Earth flyby of the asteroid 2024 JN16 on Could 14, 2024. (Picture credit score: ESA)The house rock belongs to the Apollo asteroid group, whose orbits intersect with that of Earth. A well-known asteroid from this group was the Chelyabinsk meteor, which was as massive as a six-story constructing when it broke up over the Russian metropolis of Chelyabinsk in 2013, inflicting a blast stronger than a nuclear explosion. As a result of the orbits of such objects put them at a danger of colliding with a planet or different asteroids, astronomers estimate that they survive for pretty quick durations in our photo voltaic system — maybe simply 10 million years or so. Throughout its brush with Earth, 2024 JN16 was properly throughout the orbit of the moon and half as distant because the shell of geostationary satellites, which circle our planet at an altitude of twenty-two,236 miles (35,785 km). As a result of it flew so near Earth, the asteroid appeared to shine at magnitude 13 at its brightest and was subsequently seen to telescopes. It’s now greater than 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) from Earth within the constellation Serpens, nonetheless, and might solely be seen utilizing long-exposure images, in accordance with The Sky Reside.Breaking house information, the newest updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!Asteroid 2024 JN16, seen when it was about 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) away from Earth on Could 14, 2024 — nearer than the moon. (Picture credit score: Gianluca Masi/The Digital Telescope Mission)This 12 months alone, astronomers have discovered over 40 asteroids whose paths carry them nearer to Earth than the moon’s orbit, the Watchers reported. 4 extra asteroids — two of them as huge as a home, the third as massive as an airplane and the fourth the scale of a constructing — are anticipated to strategy Earth carefully however safely on Tuesday, in accordance with estimates from Asteroid Watch, a dashboard of near-Earth asteroids and comets managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.