Small Asteroid To Pass By Earth Friday

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – One of two recently-discovered small asteroids will safely pass by Earth Friday, after the first did so earlier this week.

A graphic shows asteroid 2018 CB passing by Earth. (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech)

According to the Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, asteroid “2018 CB” will come within 39,000 miles of Earth at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. That is about one-fifth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon, JPL reports.

The asteroid is estimated at 50 to 130 feet in size.

“Asteroids of this size do not often approach this close to our planet, maybe only once or twice a year,” said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at JPL.

At 12:10 p.m. Tuesday, an asteroid named “2018 CC” came within 114,000 miles of Earth. It was estimated at 50 to 100 feet in size, JPL said.

Both asteroids were discovered Feb. 4 by the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded group based in Tucson, Ariz.

For more information on the asteroids, click here.