The 220 - 500 metre wide asteroid 2009 BD81 will make a close pass (17.9 Lunar Distances, 0.0459 AU) to the Earth-Moon system on the 27th February 2009. See more
The Lunar Distance (LD), the distance between Earth and the Moon, equals 384,401 km, (or 0.00256 AU).
On January 31, 2009 a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) 2009 BD81 was discovered at ARO by Observer R. Holmes, measurers S. Kirby, K. Dankov, H. Devore and was published in MPEC 2009-C09 on February 2nd 2009. At the time of discovery the ARO 0.61-m telescope was performing routine follow-up astrometric observations on NEO 2008 EV5. Immediately I knew any unknown object at a declination of 72 degrees north had to be an interesting object with an unusual orbit. 2009 BD81 was discovered at 0225 UT on 31 January by the Astronomical Research Observatory which observed it at January 31.10 and February 2.30.
A Ranger High School science teacher has discovered an asteroid that will pass within 7 million kilometers of Earth -- and could potentially strike the planet. Steven Kirby spotted the asteroid in an online photo during an astronomy workshop for teachers Saturday in Abilene.
Orbital elements: 2009 BD81 PHA, Earth MOID = 0.0469 AU Epoch 2008 Nov. 30.0 TT = JDT 2454800.5 MPC M 337.21310 (2000.0) P Q n 0.22474298 Peri. 190.56222 -0.99492922 -0.08161838 a 2.6792421 Node 344.38894 +0.10057757 -0.80754849 e 0.6513944 Incl. 12.61518 -0.00002867 -0.58412660 P 4.39 H 20.2 G 0.15 U 8