Excerpt:

>The space rock, known as 2023 BU, zoomed over the southern tip of South America [on 26 Jan. 2023], while it was only around 2,200 miles above the surface of the Earth.

>This is one of the closest approaches of an near-Earth object ever recorded. Data from NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies showed that the flyby of 2023 BU was the fourth-nearest of more than 35,000 past and future Earth close approaches in the 300-year period from 1900 to 2200.

>As the asteroid flew past our planet, astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) managed to capture some images.

>The VTP is a service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Ceccano, Italy, that operates and provides access to robotic, remotely operated telescopes.

>"We managed to capture this extraordinary footage, showing such an extremely close and fast asteroid," Masi told Newsweek.

>Masi captured the images with the "Elena" robotic telescope unit, which is capable of tracking the very fast motion of asteroids flying past Earth.

>The images used to create the time-lapse video were captured when 2023 BU was around 13,600 miles above the surface of our planet.

Aristos Georgiou, 27 Jan. 2023, Newsweek (Marc Benioff)