Asteroid has slim chance of collision with Earth in 2046
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Space Agencies Tracking, Asteroid With ‘Small Chance’ , of Hitting Earth in 2046. CNN reports that a newly-discovered asteroid has a slight chance of impacting Earth on Valentine’s Day in 2046. According to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the asteroid is about 160 feet in diameter, close to the size of an Olympic swimming pool. . Data projections by the European Space Agency suggest that the asteroid has a 1 in 625 chance of hitting Earth. . However, CNN reports that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Sentry system calculated that the odds of impact are slightly greater. . According to the Sentry system, which tracks potential celestial threats, the odds of collision are closer to 1 in 560. . The chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, via CNN. This object is not particularly concerning, Davide Farnocchia, navigation engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, via CNN. However, officials at NASA have warned that those odds could be altered as more observations of the asteroid are made and further analysis has been carried out. Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future, NASA Asteroid Watch, via Twitter. The asteroid, first spotted on February 2, is traveling at approximately 15.5 miles per second and is currently over 11 million miles from Earth.
March 10 (UPI) -- An asteroid about the size of an Olympic swimming pool has a "very small chance" of smashing into Earth when the giant space rock streaks through the solar system in 23 years.
Scientists expect the giant rock to hurtle into Earth's path on Feb. 14, 2046, in what will most likely be a close encounter rather than a direct impact.
The asteroid was discovered Feb. 26 by astronomers at an observatory in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, who named the careening body 2023 DW. The rock has a foreboding diameter of 160 feet -- or around the width of a football field.
The body is being monitored as a collision risk by NASA and the European Space Agency, although at least one of the agencies has so far estimated the body was likely to miss Earth by more than 1.1 million miles.
Last September, NASA slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid as part of a breathtaking mission to determine whether manmade projectiles could be used to throw the fast-flying bodies off course. Image courtesy of NASA
The exact trajectory of the asteroid will come more into focus in the months ahead.
"Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future," NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office said in a tweet.
The Torino Scale, which is used by NASA to evaluate risks from space, currently lists the asteroid as a level 1 threat, which indicates "a routine discovery in which a pass near the Earth is predicted that poses no unusual level of danger," according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
"Current calculations show the chance of collision is extremely unlikely with no cause for public attention or public concern. New telescopic observations very likely will lead to re-assignment to Level 0."
By comparison, a level 10 threat would warn of the potential for a global calamity.
NASA said the asteroid at its current size would not cause massive destruction if it did hit the planet, and that damage would be limited to the immediate area of impact.
The nation's space agency is currently developing sci-fi inspired technology to protect the Earth from a possible apocalyptic space collision. For the first time last September, NASA slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid as part of a breathtaking mission to determine whether manmade projectiles could be used to throw the fast-flying bodies off course.
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