Two small asteroids grazed Earth within a lunar distance this week, a press release from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported. The latest was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) near Tucson, Arizona on February 4, and was named the Asteroid 2018 CB, estimated to be 15 to 40 meters in diameter. Its approach to Earth took place on Friday at approximately 14:30 pm. PST (2230 GMT) at a distance of about 64.000 km, which is less than a fifth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Known as asteroid 2018 CC, it is the other asteroid, which passed close to Earth on Tuesday at 12.10. PST (2010 GMT) at a distance of approximately 184.000 km. The asteroid, which is estimated to be between 15 and 30 meters, was also discovered by CSS on February 4. "Although CB 2018 is quite small, it may be larger than the asteroid that entered the atmosphere above Chelyabinsk, Russia, almost exactly five years ago, in 2013," Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said: "Asteroids of this size don't come close to our planet often, if it happens perhaps only once or twice a year."
