I just saw in the advertisement-laden tabloid Express that three near-Earth astroids will pass the Earth today:
- The first of the three, dubbed Asteroid 2018 TU4, will come as close as 0.03637 astronomical units (au) or 14.16 lunar distances. around 3.13pm BST (2.13pm2 UTC)
- The next asteroid to pass the Earth is Asteroid SL3 at around 3.36pm BST (2.36pm BST).
- Lastly, Asteroid 2018 TS1 will come closest to Earth at around 3.45pm BST (2.45pm UTC) today.
Question: Is this just coincidental, or is there some relationship between these three particular asteroids, perhaps in the past, that would make their near-coincident arrival more likely?