A big – very big – asteroid passed relatively close to Earth this morning (April 29, 2020). Asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 passed at a safe distance, at some 4 million miles (6 million km), or about 16 times the Earth-moon distance. It’s the biggest asteroid to fly by Earth this year (that we know about so far); according to current estimates, it’s probably a bit over a mile wide (2 km) and mostly spherical. Closest approach was April 29 around 4:56 a.m. Central Daylight Time (09:56 UTC). An online viewing of the asteroid from the Virtual Telescope Project in Rome, Italy – originally scheduled for April 28 – has been rescheduled due to clouds last night. The new time for the online viewing is today (April 29, 2020) starting at 1:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (18:30 UTC; translate UTC to your time).
