{"id":59277,"date":"2025-07-19T07:29:38","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T07:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon"},"modified":"2025-07-19T07:43:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T07:43:24","slug":"dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon","title":{"rendered":"Dodge This: Massive Asteroid Closer to Earth than Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Our planet once again dodged a proverbial bullet this weekend as a potentially dangerous asteroid whizzed by at cosmic speed.<\/p>\n

The 2024 MK asteroid passed by Earth on June 29 at a distance of slightly less than 300,000 kilometers, its approach was carefully tracked by telescopes of the International Scientific Optical Network (a project managed by Russian Academy of Sciences\u2019 Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics).<\/p>\n

Measuring between 120 and 260 meters across, 2024 MK was discovered earlier this month on June 16.<\/p>\n

While the asteroid\u2019s flyby at a distance less than the distance between the Earth and the Moon may appear scary to a lay person, it is in fact a relatively common occurrence.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Our planet once again dodged a proverbial bullet this weekend as a potentially dangerous asteroid whizzed by at cosmic speed. The 2024 MK asteroid passed by Earth on June 29 at a distance of slightly less than 300,000 kilometers, its approach was carefully tracked by telescopes of the International Scientific Optical Network […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":59276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-59277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nDodge This: Massive Asteroid Closer to Earth than Moon - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our planet once again dodged a proverbial bullet this weekend as a potentially dangerous asteroid whizzed by at cosmic s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dodge This: Massive Asteroid Closer to Earth than Moon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our planet once again dodged a proverbial bullet this weekend as a potentially dangerous asteroid whizzed by at cosmic s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-19T07:29:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-19T07:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/07\/sm_1752894702.699256.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1408\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Dodge This: Massive Asteroid Closer to Earth than Moon\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-19T07:29:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-19T07:43:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\"},\"wordCount\":129,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/07\/sm_1752894702.699256.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dodge-this-massive-asteroid-closer-to-earth-than-moon\",\"name\":\"Dodge This: Massive Asteroid Closer to Earth than Moon - 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