28.06.2026

ASTEROID CLOSE ENCOUNTER: On June 27th, near-Earth asteroid 152637 (1997 NC1) had its closest encounter with Earth in more than 400 years. Michael Jaeger of AZM Martinsberg, Austria, recorded the historic flyby:

"Even though the bright moon was not far away, it was very easy to capture the asteroid," says Jaeger. "It was about as bright as a 10th magnitude star."

Naturally, a Starlink photobombed the video. With more than 10,000 of them orbiting Earth, the internet satellites are almost impossible to avoid. Take a look at this composite image. Jaeger had to edit many satellites from his video data to reduce the final count to one.

Earth was never in danger. At closest approach, the space rock was more than 6 times farther away than the Moon. The flyby was significant anyway. 1997 NC1 is a large, kilometer-class asteroid, between 0.7 and 1.6 km across. If an object this large struck Earth, it would blast a crater ~10 km wide and loft enough dust to alter global climate for years. We are wise to keep track of it.

Quelle: spaceweather.com