Bus-sized asteroid discovered days before it safely passed by Earth last night

Asteroid 2017 BX is circled in this image from Slooh.

Asteroid 2017 BX was only discovered on Jan. 20, 2017. Its estimated size is roughly that of a school bus.

Days after its discovery, asteroid 2017 BX cruised by Earth at a distance roughly 30 percent closer than the moon. Its range was 162,252 miles, and it passed by at 11:53 p.m. EST, according to Slooh, the observatory that tracked it.

NASA’s Asteroid Watch team had the asteroid at around 28 feet in diameter.

Didn’t this just happen earlier this month?

It did, fellow sky-watcher. Asteroid 2017 AG13 cruised by the Earth at a distance closer than the moon on Jan. 9, 2017. It also went undetected until it was very close to our planet, though its distance kept it entirely harmless.

Noting the recent flyby antics of asteroid 2017 AG13, Slooh nicknamed last night’s asteroid 2017 BX Rerun. Of course they did.

With two “near misses” (at least, near in relation to the size of, well, space), one would think we need to be concerned. Well, not really. These things aren’t really coming close to our planet. That doesn’t mean we’re going unprepared. Just recently, the Obama administration released a plan to prepare for the threat of a Near Earth Object. Yes, it involves blowing the asteroid up or even moving to another planet.