Giraffe-sized asteroid zooms past Earth, closer to its satellites – astronomers didn’t catch it until hours later

Last week, an asteroid, smaller than most satellites, passed through Earth and zoomed. Astronomers didn’t notice until a few hours later.

According to newly released data from the European Space Agency (ESA), the surprising asteroid encounter occurred on Tuesday, September 30th (Wednesday, October 1st, 0047 GMT). Astronomers first spotted the sleazy space lock – now named the 2025 TF, but a few hours later, they will use observations from the NASA-funded mission, the Catalina Sky Survey, to track objects on the nearest Earth.

Measured an estimated width of 3.3-9.8 feet (1-3 meters), the asteroid poses no serious threat to Earth, and the ESA would have burned out a bright fireball if it reached Earth’s atmosphere. But even small asteroids can cause major problems for spacecraft. And this happened with whipping around the same altitude as the International Space Station is normally orbit. Fortunately, there were no spaceships on the Space Rock Road.

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Space agencies such as NASA and ESA track thousands of known near Earth objects and carefully monitor what poses the greatest risk of colliding with Earth. (Now, no known objects pose a major threat to our planet for at least 100 years). For an asteroid to be considered “potentially dangerous,” it must measure at least 460 feet (140 m) in diameter and last an orbit within 465 million miles (7.48 million km) of the Earth, or approximately 20 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon. The Asteroid 2025 TF is far below its size threshold, which may explain why it avoided detection until it passed.

Astronomers from the ESA Planetary Defense Agency observed the asteroid shortly after it was discovered, ESA officials reported. NASA, which suspended all public communications during the ongoing US government closure, did not announce the asteroid, but the asteroid entry was updated on NASA’s Center for Object Research on Earth, website. According to NASA, the small space rock is not expected to fly again until April 2087.

Earth may have dodged the “fireball” with this almost-miss asteroid encounter, but Skywatchers can expect more fiery light this week. The Draconid Meteor Shower peaks on Wednesday (October 8th). And although the shooting star display is slightly damped by the light of the perfect harvest moon, the appearance of a bright fireball meteor is possible. Asteroids don’t play a role in this annual sky show. Draconides come from the ice fragments left by comet 21p/giacobini-zinner, burning the inner solar system every 6.5 years.