Asteroid 2013 EC Set To Pass Between Earth And The Moon

Here We Go Again... Another Asteroid Set For Close Pass By Earth

Here we go again - another asteroid is set to pass uncomfortably close to the Earth.

But while it might sound like a cause for alarm, its discovery is actually something to cheer.

The asteroid 2013 EC is between 10 to 17 metres wide - about the same size as the one which exploded above Russia's Ural mountains last month, injuring 1,000 people.

It was discovered on March 2, and while it will pass between the Moon and the planet there is no chance - none, zero - that it will hit us.

In fact it will pass by about 246,000 miles away - about 20 times farther than another near-miss recently.

But the key is that the asteroid was found in advance - pointing to our ever improving ability to spot these impacts before they happen.

"That we are finding all these asteroids recently does not mean that we are being visited by more asteroids," said Gianluca Masi from the Virtual Telescope Project.

"Just that our ability to detect them has gotten so much better. Our technology has improved a lot over the past decades."

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