A newly discovered small asteroid called 2020 JJ flew over Earth at a distance very close to 6992 km at 12:05 GMT on May 4, 2020
It passed much closer to us than the geostationary telecommunications satellites which gravitate 36.000 km from Earth. It has an estimated diameter between 2,7 and 6 m and a weight between 30 and 300 tonnes.
It is the 40th known asteroid to have hovered over Earth since the start of the year and the second in May.
It was also the closest asteroid flyby since October 31, 2019 (2019 UN13) which had passed 6200 km from us (1,5 m in diameter), and the 6th closest asteroid flyby ever recorded in the 'history.
2020 JJ belongs to the Apollo asteroid group. It was first seen at Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona just hours before it approached.
Observations are made with a 1,5 meter telescope and it is currently the most efficient in the world for the discovery of near-Earth objects. He is at 3e rank of asteroid discoverers, with 68.957 numbered asteroids.
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