--- title: On Asteroid Day, See The Most Recent Near Earth Object description: Astronauts kicked off the first Asteroid Day with a live telescope view of the asteroid that passed within 5 million miles of Earth. canonical: https://time.com/3942097/live-asteroid-day-icarus/ author: Katy Osborn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-30T21:39:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:25:58.099Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch Live Footage of the Asteroid That Came Close to Earth og:description: The asteroid passed within 5 million miles of Earth on June 16. og:url: https://time.com/3942097/live-asteroid-day-icarus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6221e88920db6bd5/69885929cd6848f4d40a09cf/earth-asteroid-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: asteroid 2004 BL86 earth illustration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Live Footage of the Asteroid That Came Close to Earth twitter:description: The asteroid passed within 5 million miles of Earth on June 16. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6221e88920db6bd5/69885929cd6848f4d40a09cf/earth-asteroid-illustration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Asteroid That Came Close to Earth > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=9391e2b6-de75-49c4-8cf7-bfb7d2ed5f99&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: On Asteroid Day, See Views of Potentially Hazardous Icarus [Watch (HLS stream): On Asteroid Day, See Views of Potentially Hazardous Icarus](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eekP7USA.m3u8) (3:36)  _Published 2015-07-01. Highlights from SLOOH Community Observatory's live stream of the asteroid Icarus on June 30, 2015_ by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 30, 2015 9:39 PM UTC by [Katy Osborn](https://time.com/author/katy-osborn/) ## Katy Osborn Jun 30, 2015 9:39 PM UTC Astronauts and scientists kicked off the inaugural celebration of Asteroid Day with a talk on asteroid hunting and a live telescope view of the asteroid that passed within 5 million miles of Earth two weeks ago. Journalist Will Gater, astronomer Bob Berman, astronaut Richard Garriott, and documentary producer Duncan Copp all took part in the talk—a debate on whether or not the Earth is prepared to defend itself against the potential hazard of a major asteroid. The discussion, hosted by Slooh Community Observatory, also included live footage of the most recent near Earth object: Icarus, an asteroid slightly over a half-a-mile long that passed by June 16. According to Berman, asteroids are worth the hype. “Planets can’t hit us, while comet debris doesn’t survive to strike our surface. But asteroids — chunks of stone or metal — ­­arrive by the thousands every day, and are responsible for nearly all of the 50,000 catalogued meteorites,” he said in a statement to the press. “The largest asteroids are fascinating to observe, while the hazardous ones need to be watched while defenses are being conceived.” U.S. agencies are already onto this concern—NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration announced a new deal on June 17 to cooperate in tracking and defending against asteroids. ### See Impact Craters On Earth From Space  The Shoemaker Impact Structure in Australia (previously referred to as Teague Ring and renamed in honor of the late geologist Eugene Shoemaker). The precise age of the impact is unknown, but it is estimated between 1000 and 600 million years ago. The structure is 30 km in diameter. NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems/U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team  Gosses Bluff impact structure in Northern Territory, Australia. It has a diameter of 22 km. UIG/Getty Images  Barringer impact structure (also known as Meteor Crater) in Arizona. It is 49,000 years old and has a diameter of 1186 km. Getty Images  Barringer impact structure (also known as Meteor Crater) in Arizona. It is 49,000 years old and has a diameter of 1186 km. UIG/Getty Images  The Acraman impact structure in Australia. It is 570 million years old and has a diameter of 160 km. UIG/Getty Images  Manicouagan Impact Structure in Quebec. It is roughly 213-215 million years old and has a diameter of approximately 100 km. Manicouagan Impact Structure, Quebec, Canada Sensor: L7 ETM+ Path/Row: 13/24 Lat/Long: 51.400/-68.738 Category: Land Features  The Clearwater Lakes impact structures. They are 270 to 310 million years old with diameters of both craters of 32 km and 22 km. UIG/Getty Images  Vredefort Meteor Impact Crater in South Africa. It is roughly four billion years old and is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, estimated to be more than 300 km across when it was formed. Planet Observer/UIG/Getty Images  Wanapitei Lake Meteor Impact Crater in Manitoba. It is approximately 37.2 million years old and has a diameter of 8.4 km. Planet Observer/UIG/Getty Images  The Lonar impact structure in India. It has a diameter of 1.83 km. UIG/Getty Images  The Oasis crater North of Koufra Oasis in Libya. It is less than 120 million years old and was thought to have a diameter of roughly 18 km post-impact. Planet Observer/UIG/Getty Images  Roter Kamm meteorite crater in the Namibian section of the Namib Desert. It is estimated to be between 4 and 5 million years old and has a diameter of 2.5 km. NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems/U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team  Spider Crater in the Kimberley Region of northern Western Australia. Jesse Allen/NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS/ U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team  The Aorounga impact structure in Chad. It is 200 million years old and has a diameter of 17 km. UniversalImagesGroup—UIG via Getty Images  The Tenoumer meteor crater in Mauritania. It is 2.5 million years old and has a diameter of 1.9 km. UIG/Getty Images  Chesapeake Bay Meteor Impact Crater in Virginia. It is approximately 35 million years old and is thought to have had a diameter of about 40 km post-impact. Planet Observer/UIG/Getty Images ## Transcript Hello and welcome to Slooh's live coverage of asteroid day 2015. My name's Will Gater and tonight on the show we're going to be discussing a somewhat controversial subject, certainly a fascinating one and An area of astronomy that really has intrigued astronomers and the public alike for centuries. And that is the threat to earth from asteroids. So we do get hit, every single night, and the question is how large an object are we talking about? The only one really hurt by one that we know of is Simon Simonov, that was the man who was sitting on a rocking chair in the Tunguska region on June 30, 1908, when bam, he got slammed by, it was dozens of miles away, but it was enough to Be so bright on the sky that it actually gave him a burn on his skin and knocked him from his chair and winds rolled by and knocked over trees for 50 miles in all directions. And this was by the way not even seen until Over ten years later when they finally set a party to check out what had happened. These were turbulent times of course around the Russian revolution. So the scientists didn't even get there until later and yet, look at this. Over ten years later, this was the 1920s, you can still see all the trees pointing radially away from that spot. Really spooky and freaky and eerie. From where it had burst overhead. Fortunately, these kind of surveys don't require a Hubble space telescope or these multi- billion dollar efforts, and so, whether it's a crowd- funded group or B6- 12, both of those are quite viable. This is why this first step is really just awareness. Let's go look. The price tag is not particularly hefty, it's something that crowdfunding, or small companies, amateurs could easily be significant contributors to, once we identify something that we think might be a problem, then we actually did the second phase of that, which is deflecting an asteroid. That would be a much, much bigger cost. A much, much bigger effort. But by the way, once we have any reason to believe that there's actually something gonna hit us in 10 or 20 years, or whatever the predicted time frame is. I assure you, all the governments of Earth, much less those that would be impacted, will quickly find the funds to help put the process together to to mitigate that risk. And therein lies the crux of the problem, we don't look for asteroids, we don't go out to look for them because really we've never had the need to but now we're understanding more tha in fact what's potentially dangerous about all these asteroids or at least not knowing where these asteroids are is perhaps we can get hit by one on the course The chances are if there were a large enough impact, you would have a tsunami and with regard to the world's population, the majority of the world's population live in coastal areas. So that means a lot of people at risk. They're pretty, they're fascinating to watch. They're a little scary because You know, they did end the reign of the dinosaurs. An asteroid, it was either an asteroid or a comet did injure a thousand people just two years ago. 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