Small Asteroid Between Earth and Moon Tonight

Small asteroid 2013 LR6 will safely fly past this evening at 9:42 p.m. PDT (which is June 8 at 12:42 a.m. EDT/June 8 at 04:42 UTC) at a distance of about 65,000 miles (105,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface. The space rock, which is about 30 feet (10 meters) in diameter, will be above the Southern Ocean, south of Tasmania, at the time of closest approach. Asteroid 2013LR6 was discovered by the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey on June 6.

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch and via Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch .