Yet another visitor from the depths of space has recently graced Earth's eager star-gazers with its presence, as a recently discovered asteroid made its way to our corner of the Solar system on 24 September, Live Science reports.
Designated as 2020 SW, the asteroid was apparently first spotted only last week, on 18 September, and was expected to swing by Earth at a distance of about 27,000 kilometers which, as the media outlet points out, is way closer than TV and weather satellites which orbit at a distance of about 35,888 km from the planet.
Though the exact size of the space rock in question is not immediately clear, it was estimated as being between 14 feet and 32 feet (4.4 and 9.9 metres), roughly the size of a bus or mobile home, otherwise known as a recreational vehicle or "RV", traveling at a velocity of about 7.7 kilometers per second relative to Earth.
The media outlet also points out that because the asteroid is relatively small, Earth's gravity was actually expected to affect the course of the rock which “won't pay our planet another visit until 3 June 2029”.