Unexpected huge asteroid 2018 GE3 surprises Earth on Sunday

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Unexpected huge asteroid 2018 GE3 surprises Earth on Sunday
Unexpected huge asteroid 2018 GE3 surprises Earth on Sunday

Washington : NASA scientists were surprised by a giant asteroid, that came unnoticed only to flyby Earth last weekend. The space rock was found flying at a velocity of 106,000 kilometers per hour (about 66,000 mph).

It came to notice of NASA's astronomers with just about 20 hours before its surprise flight-by. Dubbed as 2018 GE3, the space rock passed at a distance equal to half the distance between Earth and the Moon.

As per observations, the asteroid was as big as a football field. 2018 GE3 was up to 100 meters wide, meaning that this space rock is about 3 and a half times larger than the famous Tunguska space rock which floored about 2,000 square kilometers of the Siberian forest, back in 1908.

The astronomers claim that it is hard to detect asteroids as they are dark and grey in color. They can only be detected with the help of telescope if they are traced with precision in speed and approximate location.

On the other hand, NASA runs an asteroid detection program but, for the moment, it targets only the space rocks wider than 140 meters. Thus, the 2018 GE3 asteroid, which recently passed next to Earth, went undetected.