A mile-wide asteroid passed by Earth on Friday at a distance 10 times that of the moon.
The largest asteroid yet to pass by our planet is roughly four times the size of the Empire State Building. Thanks to a new collaboration that includes telescopes in Australia and Rome, viewers were able to watch the event live online.
"These two live feeds covering 1989 JA were possible thanks to the brand new
cooperation between the Virtual Telescope Project and Telescope Live," founder Gianluca Masi told Space.com. "They have several telescopes around the planet, under amazing skies."
The greatest asteroid missions open in a new tab.
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Despite its large size, the asteroid posed no threat to our planet because it was 2.5 million miles away. It was bright enough to be seen in telescopes.
It seems like there are so many space rocks going by us these days because we are getting better at catching any potential impacts before they happen.
While asteroid 7335 is technically classified as potentially hazardous, it wasn't meant to indicate an imminent threat to our planet. The designation refers to asteroids that are larger than 150 meters and the distance from the asteroid to Earth.
Space agencies and telescopes keep an eye on space rocks. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office is included. You can keep track of asteroids that have a chance of impact, as well as other prominent upcoming flybys.
NASA keeps an eye on the sky in case there are any threats in the next 100 years.
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