21 mile wide monster asteroid hurtles safely past Earth
Asteroid '433 Eros', which is 400 times the City of London, came within 16.6million miles of our planet yesterday evening.The massive hunk of rock posed no threat, but is the closest an asteroid of its size has come to Earth in a long time. The last time Eros got up close and personal was 37 years ago in 1975. Its next visit won't be until 2056.
Eros orbits the Sun every 642.9 days and rotates once every five hours and 16 minutes.It was discovered in 1898 by Gustav Witt in Germany and Auguste Charlois in France. A smaller bus-sized asteroid passed even closer to Earth last week. According to NASA's Asteroid Watch programme, Asteroid 2012 BX34, came within 36, 750 miles of Earth at about 3.30pm on Friday.