Asteroid 2023 BU Just Passed a Few Thousand Kilometres From Earth. Here's Why That's Exciting

Asteroid 2023 BU passed only about 3,600 km from the surface of Earth on January 27. That distance is just slightly farther than the distance between Perth and Sydney and is only about 1 per cent the distance between Earth and our Moon. This makes 2023 BU the fourth-closest known asteroid encounter with Earth.