On October 15–16, the recently discovered asteroid 2025 TP5 made a close flyby of Earth and then the Moon. It flew past our planet at a distance of less than 100,000 km. This is about four times less than the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Over the past few decades, astronomers have made significant efforts to catalog and search for potentially dangerous asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth. Their detection is handled, in particular, by the ATLAS system, which is funded by NASA. It consists of four automated telescopes, two of which are located in Hawaii, one in Chile, and another in South Africa. It was the ATLAS system that discovered the famous interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which is currently approaching the Sun.
On October 13, ATLAS telescopes discovered a previously unknown asteroid, designated 2025 TP5. Its diameter is 16 meters.
On October 15, 2025, TP5 flew close to Earth. According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the minimum distance between the two bodies was 97,089 km. This is significantly less than the distance of most similar visits. However, in any case, the approach posed no threat to Earth. And the very next day, 2025 TP5 flew past the Moon at a distance of 120,084 km, which is also quite close by cosmic standards.
Interestingly, in 1979, 2025 TP5 already made a close flyby of Earth. But no one noticed the asteroid at that time. The discovery of 2025 TP5 clearly demonstrates the significantly increased capabilities of astronomers in searching for near-Earth asteroids. Technology has advanced to such an extent that several small asteroids approaching Earth are now detected every month. Recall that one of them flew over Earth at the altitude of the International Space Station in early October.
According to Space.com
