Close approach

Empire State Building-sized asteroid 218017

42 LD · ~451 m

42 LD
lunar distances from Earth
15,991,040 km
distance from Earth’s center
200–650 m
estimated diameter
Empire State Building
roughly the size of
218017 · ~451 mEmpire State Building · 381 m
500 m

Drawn to scale. A person would be smaller than a pixel here.

218017 passes about 42× the distance to the Moon from Earth (15,991,040 km). It is about 451 m across (measured). If a rock this size hit Earth, the result would be devastation on a national to continental scale, with global climate effects possible depending on the impact site. This is a routine close approach with no known impact risk.

For the background, read Impact risk in Asteroids.

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