Asteroid Makes a Safe Pass Past Earth, with a Moon in Tow

The massive asteroid that flew past Earth on Monday, has a moon orbiting it.

Zee News reported that the asteroid 2004 BL86 flew within 1.2 million kilometres of Earth or about three times the distance between Earth and moon. NASA captured images of the asteroid as it rotated its ways through space, revealing various sides of its landscape. The asteroid was found to measure 325-meter wide and was not any threat to Earth. It is the biggest asteroid of its size to have flown by until 2027.

"The trajectory of asteroid 2004 BL86 is well understood. Monday's flyby was the closest approach the asteroid will make to Earth for at least the next two centuries. It is also the closest a known asteroid this size will come to Earth until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past our planet in 2027," a news release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

"The 20 individual images used in the movie were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Jan. 26, 2015. They show the primary body is approximately 1,100 feet (325 meters) across and has a small moon approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across," it added.

NASA further said that 16 percent of near-earth asteroids which measure more than 200 meters have one or two moons orbiting them. The space agency constantly monitors near-earth objects for threats besides discerning information about origins of the solar system.