Sci Tech
400-meter asteroid may ‘blow up earth’
This diagram shows the orbit of asteroid 2013 TV135 (in blue), which has just a one-in-63,000 chance of impacting Earth in 2032. Picture: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ukraine sky gazers identified a four hundred meter sized asteroid passing Earth and astronomers currently project that on its current trajectory the asteroid will come back to close to Earth’s orbit on or about August 26, 2032. Russian official Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space research division personally tweeted, the discovery using alarming terms.
However, not all space agencies agree with Rogozin’s assessment of the impact prospects of the asteroid discovered on Saturday.
A statement from NASA, titled “A reality check”, stated it was 99.998 assurance that “when it heads back around the planet in 2032 it will sail past again.” Others agree that the asteroid which if impacting with the earth would do so with a force as equal two thousand atomic bombs, acknowledged that the odds of an impact are 1 in 63,000.
Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s NEO Program. said that this is a new discovery and that more observation is needed. NASA states that the results of their further observations will enable them to make more accurate predictions.
CNN also reported that further investigation is needed by NASA and until then the asteroid has a rating of danger of 1 out of a possible 10 according to the Torino Impact Hazard Scale. This is the system that determines the danger of impact and destruction by asteroids, A 1 rating means that it the asteroid poses “no unusual level of danger.”
On The Web:
400-metre asteroid sighted may ‘blow up the earth’ in 2032
http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/metre-asteroid-sighted-may-8216blow-up-the-earth8217-in-2032/story-fnjwlcze-1226742779951
400-meter asteroid sighted may ‘blow up the earth’ in 2032
http://www.gadailynews.com/science/181459-400-meter-asteroid-sighted-may-blow-up-the-earth-in-2032.html