A newly discovered space rock zoomed safely by Earth on Wednesday (Oct. 15) at only about a quarter of the average distance to the moon.
The asteroid, called 2025 TP5, sailed by our planet at 4:09 p.m. EDT (2009 UTC) at a minimum distance of 60,328 miles (97,089 km), according to data from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (NASA is in shutdown, like much of the U.S. government, but critical activities like seeking potentially hazardous asteroids can continue.) By comparison, the average distance to the moon is 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers).
