Current Events: Asteroid Zips close to Earth

On the 1st of June, Wednesday night at around 8:15 PM an asteroid the size of a truck passed close to Earth. Even thought this asteroid is not dangerous and would burn up in our atmosphere, the interesting thing about it it was much closer to Earth then the moon ever comes, with a distance of 215,000 miles (346,000 kilometers) from earth it was 24,000 miles closer to earth then the moon is at all times. NASA scientists named this asteroid 2009 BD, and after closer studies they determined it will stay close to Earth in the next moth or so, it will stay about 10 lunar distances the whole month.

I found this article on the following site http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43262234/ns/technology_and_science-space/

I found it after searching recent space current events, I took a quick glimpse and realized it would interest me. I enjoyed reading it and learned more about asteroids, and small objects that float freely in space.

Eclipces

Eclipses are caused when one space body is in front of another blocking the second one from receiving sunlight. There are two types of eclipses a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse, in a solar eclipse the moon is between the sun and Earth, therefore Earth isn't receiving light. While in a Lunar eclipse it's the opposite Earth is blocking the sun rays from reaching the Moon. Eclipses aren't often but they do occur. Solar eclipses occur on a New moon when we don't see the moon, because the side receiving the light is the side pointing towards the sun, this also Blocks the Earth from receiving sun rays. In a Lunar eclipse it's the opposite except Earth is at 23.5 degrees on it's axis which means sometimes sunlight reaches the moon.

Ancient people didn't know what solar eclipses were, there was no explanation so they had to think of some, there were many and different people though of different things, One of the most popular thoughts was it was a dragon blocking the sun