SURPRISE ASTEROID FLYBY!

We dodged a bullet! On 15 Apr 2018 at 06:41 UTC, a sizable asteroid about 50-100 m in diameter zoomed about halfway between the Earth and the Moon, crossing the orbit of Earth. Astronomers spotted it for the very first time only the day before. NASA needs to get its asteroid spotting and defense program up to speed.

Per Wikipedia, 2018 GE3 "is both the largest known asteroid to ever pass that close to Earth, as well as the Moon, in observational history. 99942 Apophis will break both of these records when it approaches only 0.098 LD (0.000252 AU) from Earth on 13 April 2029. … On 15 April 2018, at 06:41 UT, [2018 GE3] passed Earth at a nominal distance of 0.50 LD (0.001286 AU) which corresponds to a distance of 192,317 kilometres (119,500 miles), at a speed of 106,497 km/h (66,174 mph)."

Sauce:

Great explanation and comments for the layfag: https:// wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/15/nasa-previously-unknown-asteroid-nearly-misses-earth-today/

Ditto plus video of the asteroid:

http:// www.spaceweather.com/

for Monday 16 Apr 2018

Good description for the layfag: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_GE3

Detailed parameters of asteroid: https:// www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=2018+GE3

Table of Near Earth Orbit Earth Close Approaches: https:// cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

Orbit diagram: https:// ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2018%20GE3;old=0;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb