2,000 New Asteroids Approached Earth in 2017 and Expect to Spot Even More in 2018
Published on January 9, 2018
2,000 New Asteroids Approached Earth in 2017 and Astronomers Expect to Spot Even More in 2018
We live in a busy neighborhood: Astronomers spotted just over 2,000 never-before-seen asteroids passing within almost 280 million miles of Earth over the course of last year. That brings the total number of so-called near-Earth asteroids identified to 17,446, with the vast majority of those being spotted beginning in the mid 1990s. And scientists are confident they will spend this year giving even more space rocks names, numbers and pathways as they hurtle through our solar system.
