News
Close encounter with 400-metre-wide asteroid
View(s):A 400-metre wide asteroid was orbiting close to Earth yesterday according to the European Space Agency, Sri Lanka Planetarium (SLP) officials said. The asteroid, which travels at a speed of 35 km per second, was orbiting at a distance 1.3 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. “The asteroid numbered 2015TB145 was not visible to the naked eye but could be seen through a telescope,” the Planetarium said. It added that a similar asteroid would travel close to Earth in 2027 at a distance as that of the moon.
It also said that another space object, believed to be a two-metre-long leftover piece of a rocket, would fall into the sea, about 65 km from the southern coast of Sri Lanka on November 13.
