An asteroid estimated to be at least 15 feet in diameter made an alarmingly close pass to Earth on Sunday morning just hours after it was first observed by astronomers. The steroid, named Asteroid 2018 GE3, was closest to Earth at around 2:41 a.m. on April 15 when it was spotted about 119,500 miles away. That’s closer than the moon, which orbits Earth at an average distance of 238,900 miles. GE3 also passed close to the moon later that morning on its journey around the sun. The asteroid was first observed by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey project, based at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab in Tucson, Arizona.
