Late final month, a big asteroid bigger than the Nice Pyramid of Giza hurtled between Earth and the moon at greater than 21,000 mph (34,000 km/h). The uncommon, ultra-close encounter allowed astronomers to seize the first-ever footage of the area rock, which revealed that the near-Earth object was flippantly knocked off target by our planet’s gravitational pull — without end altering the asteroid’s journey across the solar. The asteroid, named 2024 MK, is roughly 500 ft (150 meters) throughout, making it sufficiently big to wipe out a big metropolis. The “doubtlessly hazardous” area rock, which has an irregular and elongated form, was first noticed barreling towards Earth on June 16 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Final Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa.On June 29, simply 13 days after it was found, 2024 MK reached its closest level to Earth because it skimmed our planet’s orbit at a distance of round 184,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) — or round three-quarters of the space between Earth and the moon.Astronomers at NASA’s Goldstone Deep Area Communications Advanced in California monitored the flyby utilizing the Goldstone Photo voltaic System Radar telescope. By bouncing radio waves off the area rock because it shot previous Earth, the group created grainy “bistatic” photographs of the asteroid, which helped them decide its precise form and map out the concavities and ridges on its floor. The brand new pictures have been launched July 3 by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Simply two days earlier than the flyby, on June 27, the identical telescope additionally captured photographs of the a lot bigger “planet killer” asteroid 2011 UL21 because it handed by our planet at a distance of round 4.1 million miles (6.6 million km). These footage revealed that this mountain-size area rock has a secret moon hiding in its orbit. Associated: No, NASA hasn’t warned of an impending asteroid strike in 2038. Here is what actually occurred.2024 MK’s orbit takes it distant from Earth and into the asteroid belt. (Picture credit score: NASA/JPL/Small-Physique Database Lookup)The brand new observations of 2024 MK revealed that the area rock’s trajectory has shifted because it was first found. That is possible as a result of Earth gravitationally tugged on the asteroid because it handed by us, pulling it barely nearer to our planet.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.This alteration was fairly vital. The asteroid beforehand orbited the solar each 3.3 years, spending most of its time within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Nonetheless, scientists now imagine that it’ll take 24 fewer days to finish the route, based on JPL. However fortunately, “its future movement exhibits that it [still] doesn’t pose a menace to our planet for the foreseeable future,” NASA representatives wrote in a press release.MK 2024 was initially scheduled to make its subsequent closest method to Earth in 3037. Nonetheless, this might now occur a number of months sooner than anticipated as a result of its new orbital trajectory. It’s now unclear how shut it is going to get to us or if our planet’s gravity will additional alter its orbit.