Asteroid 2018 CB to 'brush past' Earth: NASA

A small asteroid, estimated to measure between 15 and 40 meters, is set to brush past Earth at a distance of just 64,000 kilometres. Dubbed 2018 CB, the asteroid is the second one to pass by Earth this week.

The first close-approaching asteroid – discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) on February 4 – is designated asteroid 2018 CC. Estimated to be between 15 and 30 meters in size, the asteroid safely passed by Earth on February 6, at a distance of about 184,000 kilometres.

The asteroid 2018 CB, will pass closely by Earth on February 10, at around 4:00 am IST, at a distance of less



than one-fifth of that between the Earth to the Moon.The asteroid, which is estimated to be between 15 and 40 meters in size, was also discovered by CSS on February 4.

“Although 2018 CB is quite small, it might well be larger than the asteroid that entered the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk, Russia, almost exactly five years ago, in 2013,” said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US.

“Asteroids of this size do not often approach this close to our planet – maybe only once or twice a year,” Chodas said.