Plane-sized asteroid passed between Earth and the Moon on Tuesday, followed by THREE more

Stargazers were on high alert as a plane-sized asteroid made an extremely close flyby of Earth overnight, but three more space rocks are due to graze the planet’s backyard before Tuesday is done.

Asteroid 2021 EQ3 shot past Earth at 12 kilometers per second or roughly 43,000kph at 9:45pm PT Monday night. 

About the same size as the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged more than 7,200 buildings in southwestern Russia in 2013, the 21-meter 2021 EQ3 passed the planet at a distance of 269,000km (for comparison, the distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400 km). 

Before March 16 is over however, amateur and professional astronomers alike can expect more space rock salutes.

The nine-meter (1.5 times the size of a giraffe) 2021 EJ3 will pass the planet at just 759,610km followed shortly after by the 16-meter (four times the length of a VW Beetle) 2021 EW3, at 2.4 million kilometers and the 34-meter (half the wingspan of a 747) 2021 DT, at just over seven million kilometers. 

This is but a mere prelude to the visit of the truly monstrous, Golden-Gate-Bridge-sized asteroid 2001 FO32, which will pass Earth on March 21.

UPDATE: The previous version erroneously stated that the asteroid passed the planet at a distance of “one-seventh of the distance between Earth and the Moon”. The text has been updated to reflect that the correct figure is seven-tenths of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

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