For the second time this month, an asteroid that we didn’t even know existed a week ago has passed closer by the surface of the Earth than the distance to the moon.
Asteroid 2017 BX was spotted for the first time ever on January 20 and it came within 162,252 miles (261,120 kilometers) of us, or a little over two thirds of the way to the moon, as it sailed by Tuesday evening just before 9 p.m. PT.
The Slooh Observatory actually managed to capture a very faint image of the passing of 2017 BX, nicknamed “Rerun” for the short-statured character from the classic TV show ” What’s Happening!! ”
Rerun just barely shows up in the image for the same reason that it wasn’t even discovered until it was fast approaching us — it’s relatively small and moving very fast.
