Large Asteroid to Buzz Earth in 2032, But Poses Little Threat, NASA Says

[Buster's Uncle]

Large Asteroid to Buzz Earth in 2032, But Poses Little Threat, NASA Says
SPACE.com
By Denise Chow, Staff Writer  2 hours ago



This diagram shows the orbit of asteroid 2013 TV135 (in blue)


     
A recently discovered 1,300-foot-wide (400 meters) asteroid that passed near Earth last month could pay the planet another close visit in 2032. But, NASA officials say there is nothing to fear, as the odds that the space rock will hit Earth are extremely slim.

The asteroid (named 2013 TV135) was discovered on Oct. 8, by astronomers at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. Several weeks before it was spotted, however, the huge space rock flew within 4.2 million miles (6.7 million kilometers) of Earth on Sept. 16.

Many details of the asteroid's orbital path are still unknown, but astronomers estimate it could be back in Earth's neighborhood in less than 20 years. Still, NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, which monitors potential threats to the planet, says the probability that 2013 TV135 will impact Earth is only one in 63,000.

"To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent," Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.

In the coming months, astronomers will continue to study 2013 TV135 in order to improve calculations of the space rock's orbit. Once more is understood about the asteroid, NASA scientists expect the risk of impact with Earth will be dramatically reduced, or even eliminated.

"This is a relatively new discovery," Yeomans said. "With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future."

Initial observations of 2013 TV135 indicate that it follows an orbit that takes it as close to the sun as Earth, before swinging out three-quarters of the distance to Jupiter's orbit.

Astronomers who have been monitoring 2013 TV135 say it takes almost four years for the space rock to complete one full orbit.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office is tasked with finding, tracking and characterizing asteroids and comets that may pose a threat to the planet. Yeoman and his colleagues use telescopes on the ground and in space to plot the orbital positions of these objects over time. Since Oct. 14, a whopping total of 10,332 near-Earth objects have been newly discovered.


http://news.yahoo.com/large-asteroid-buzz-earth-2032-poses-little-threat-181215498.html

[Buster's Uncle]

No, a giant asteroid is not about to hit the Earth
By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo News 2 hours ago The Sideshow



This diagram shows the orbit of asteroid 2013 TV135 (in blue), which has just a 1-in-63,000 chance of impacting Earth



NASA has gone out of its way to reassure the public that reports of a massive asteroid headed toward Earth are greatly exaggerated.

In a post entitled “Reality Check,” NASA says that the giant asteroid, first spotted by Ukranian scientists, poses almost zero risk of impacting the Earth.

Specifically, NASA says the odds are about 1 in 63,000 that the asteroid, named TV135, will impact the Earth. On the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, it’s listed as a 1 out of possible 10, or “no unusual level of danger."

"To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "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."

 Yeomans is the world’s preeminent “asteroid hunter,”  and one of his regular duties is stepping up to shoot down unfounded hysteria about asteroids.

He was forced to speak up after  Russian Deputy Premier Dmitry Rogozin caused a stir  this week when he wrote on his Twitter account, "A 400-metre asteroid is threatening to blow up the Earth."

In an August interview with Yahoo News, Yeomans explained that NASA typically spots a potentially dangerous asteroid up to 100 years before it would potentially hit the Earth.

TV135 is estimated to be about 400 meters in diameter. For some context, Yeomans says that an asteroid about 30 meters in diameter could cause real damage upon impact. But that’s still far from an extinction-level event. The asteroid that most scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs is believed to have been 6 miles, or nearly 10,000 meters, in diameter.

Yeomans says there are about 1,000 “Near Earth Objects” in the galaxy that would cause catastrophic damage if they impacted the Earth and that NASA has already identified an estimated 95 percent of them. In other words, the chance that a giant, lethal asteroid would suddenly manifest itself just outside of Earth’s orbit is infinitesimally small.

That said, NASA believes we’re technically due for a major asteroid impact. By their best estimates, a major impact has happened on Earth about once every 100 million years.

But even if scientists do spot a giant asteroid headed our way, they are multiple solutions to the problem.

First, Yeomans says, we would simply launch a spacecraft or rocket into the asteroid to alter its trajectory. Even changing an asteroid or comet’s path by just a few inches would be enough to ensure that it missed Earth by a wide margin so long as the course was altered far enough out in space.

In fact, given enough notice, it may not even take a forceful impact to send an asteroid out of harm’s way. In 2012, MIT students said that if they could spot a giant asteroid 20 years before it reached Earth,  simply spraying the asteroid with paintballs would get the job done  .

And in a true emergency scenario where an asteroid was too close for its course to be altered, there are still options. In the early 1960s, students at MIT suggested that the best course of action would be to launch a nuclear missile into an asteroid, causing it to break up. If any fragments of the asteroid still made it to Earth, they’d be greatly reduced in size after traveling through the Earth’s atmosphere, and the impact would be minimal.


http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/no--a-giant-asteroid-is-not-about-to-hit-the-earth-182622623.html

...

-And radioactive.

[Buster's Uncle]

Newly discovered asteroid missed Earth but will return in 2032
Reuters 1 hour ago


     
MIAMI (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 October 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 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/newly-discovered-asteroid-missed-earth-return-2032-193217461.html