MIAMI, Oct 18 (Reuters) – A newly discovered asteroid made a
“close” approach to Earth this week – at least in astronomical
terms – and it is likely to come back around in 2032, but there
is only a miniscule risk of it smashing into the planet, NASA
said on Friday.
The asteroid known as 2013 TV135 came within 4.2 million
miles (6.7 million km) of Earth on Wednesday, the U.S. space
agency said.
It was discovered on Oct. 8 by astronomers at the Crimean
Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. Astronomers have only a
week’s worth of observations to go on, but believe its orbit
will bring it back to Earth’s neighborhood in 2032.
The probability of the asteroid hitting Earth is only one in
63,000, they calculated.
“To put it another way, that puts the current probability of
no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent,” said Don Yeomans,
manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
With additional observations in the coming months,
scientists may be able to better calculate the asteroid’s orbit
and reduce their estimate of the risk or rule out any risk
entirely, NASA said.
The asteroid is estimated to be 1,300 feet (400 meters) in
size and its orbit is believed to carry it as far out as about
three-quarters of the distance to Jupiter’s orbit and as close
to the sun as Earth’s orbit, NASA said.
The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, known as
“Spaceguard,” detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing
close to Earth to determine if any could pose harm. The newly
discovered asteroid is one of 10,332 near-Earth objects
identified so far.
(Reporting by Jane Sutton; editing by Christopher Wilson)
