Russian astronomer Gennady Borisov has announced the discovery of a new asteroid that flew near Earth at around 19:00 Moscow time on Sunday, at a distance of approximately 28,000 to 30,000 kilometers. In a statement to the Russian news agency Novosti, he said, "I discovered this new celestial body this morning, and I sent my observations to the Minor Planet Center, which has published them on the page confirming the existence of near-Earth asteroids. It was observed by several other observatories for several hours. It became clear that the asteroid is small—about 2 to 3 meters long—but it's flying at a very close distance, even within the area of geostationary satellites around Earth, that is about 28,000 to 30,000 kilometers from Earth, at 19:00 Moscow time."
According to him, it is difficult to accurately determine the group of asteroids to which the discovered celestial body belongs. Nearby observations will help to determine the asteroid's trajectory and orbital indicators, noting that Earth's gravity will undoubtedly change the asteroid's orbit. The results of the observations and calculations will be published on the official website of the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union.
It is worth mentioning that Gennady Borisov discovered the first interstellar comet, which was observed in 2019. Its orbital indicators showed that it came from outside the solar system, and it was named 2I/Borisov. Borisov has also discovered several asteroids and comets.
