Feel that gust of wind whipping by? Was it a summer breeze? Or could it have been the two, giant, building-sized asteroids whipping past the Earth this weekend? (It couldn’t, but just imagine.)
The two space objects were documented by NASA, and will fly past — and safely miss! — our planet on July 29 and July 30, according to the space organization’s trajectory estimates.
The first asteroid, labelled 2016 CZ31, flew past our night sky on the evening of July 29, and was measured at 400 feet wide. It traveled at a speedy 34,560 mph.
The second asteroid, an even larger space rock named 2013 CU83, will then zoom past on the evening of July 30 — it’ll move at a much more gentle 13,153 mph. Both asteroids pass over us at more than a million miles overhead, many times the distance between the Earth and the moon, and well within safety measurements for these celestial bodies.
And these objects routinely pass around our planet, so don’t fear the end of the Earth via hurtling space object just yet. Earlier this year, a mile-wide asteroid passed above the Earth 2.5 million miles overhead, closely monitored by NASA for everyone’s scientific enjoyment and safety. Estimates say the next orbit of these particular asteroids will occur in January 2028.
You can also follow NASA’s asteroid watch, which tracks the path of near earth objects (NEO’s) as part of the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.