MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner signs off

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

In celestial terms, asteroid 2004 BL86 pretty much buzzed Earth, coming within 745,000 miles of our planet.

, it's the closest this asteroid will pass by Earth for at least the next two centuries. So when it flew by yesterday, scientists trained their instruments on it.


Scientists using the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., captured a stunning set of images that revealed 2004 BL86 has a small moon.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory explains

 this phenomenon is actually pretty common:


An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Monday's flyby is the closest a known asteroid of this size will pass by Earth in at least the next two centuries. In fact, it's the closest this particular asteroid will pass by Earth in that time; another asteroid of similar size is expected in 2027.

Science

In celestial terms, asteroid 2004 BL86 pretty much buzzed the Earth on Tuesday, coming within 745,000 miles away.

The asteroid that flew past Earth has its own moon

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox