NEW YORK (AA) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stated Friday a newly discovered asteroid made a close approach to Earth on September 16, which "could be back in Earth’s neighborhood in 2032".
Published on NASA's official website, the statement said the asteroid named 2013 TV135 was initially estimated to be about 400 meters (1,300 feet).
The scientists said the asteroid made it's closest approach as about 6.7 million kilometers (4.2 million miles), whose orbit carries it as far out as about three quarters of the distance between the Moon and the Earth.
Scientists, who made observations for an orbital period that spans almost four years, stated its future orbital path was still quite uncertain. NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office noted the probability this asteroid could then impact Earth was only one in 63,000.
The asteroid was discovered on October 8, 2013, by astronomers working at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. As of October 14, asteroid 2013 TV135 is one of 10,332 near-Earth objects that have been discovered.
"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, Calif. "This is a relatively new discovery. With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future."
NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to the planet.
JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
