Image credit: Planetary Society

Two recently discovered asteroids will pass closely by Earth this afternoon.

The first asteroid, named 2020 FF1, is the smallest of the two. It is 49.21 feet (15 meters) in diameter. It will pass within 437,822 miles (231,170 km) of Earth. This is just 1.8x as far as our Moon is at its perigee (closest point in orbit). It is currently traveling at a velocity of 12.92 km/s which is equivalent to 28,901 mph (46,512 km/h).

The second asteroid, named 2020 DP4, is 183.7 feet (56 meters) in diameter which is nearly 2/3rds the length of a standard US football field. 2020 DP4 will pass within 837,532 miles (1,347,877 km) of Earth which is about 3.5x the distance of our Moon at its perigee from Earth. 2020 DP4 is traveling at 8.1 km/s which is equivalent to 18,119 mph (29,160 km/h).

While these asteroids will pass safely by Earth today, it's a bit nerve-recking to think they were just discovered earlier this year. What else is out there which we don't know about yet? This is a good reason why our space program must be expanded, so we are much more aware of potential dangers to our planet.

NEO Earth Close Approaches at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/