MINOR PLANET ASTRO-ALERT: 2000 EW70

P.H.A. 2000 EW70

(see link at bottom)

On March 9, 2000, the 1-meter f/2.15 LINEAR patrol camera in New Mexico picked up a fast-moving asteroid that could threaten Earth at some future date. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has given it the temporary designation 2000 EW70. About magnitude 17.5 when first detected, the asteroid will brighten 20-fold next week as it makes a moderately close flyby, passing only 0.013 astronomical unit from Earth. (That's 5 Earth-Moon distances.)

On March 23, 2000 at approximately 18:00 local asteroid 2000 EW70 passed 0.013626 astronomical units (2,038,420 kilometers or 1,266,615 miles) from the Earth.  The graphic shows the asteroid several days before this close approach.  The grid represents the plane of the solar system,  notice that the orbits of the planets change thickness as they pass above or below the plane.  I've added a ribbon to depict the orbit of asteroid 2000 EW70.

• Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHA's)

• Near Earth Objects (NEO's) and Orbits

updated: