Newly discovered asteroid 2013 TV135 made a close approach to Earth
on Sept. 16, when it came within about 4.2 million miles (6.7 million
kilometers). The asteroid is initially estimated to be about 1,300 feet
(400 meters) in size and its orbit carries 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. It was discovered on Oct. 8, 2013, by astronomers working
at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. As of Oct. 14,
asteroid 2013 TV135 is one of 10,332 near-Earth objects that have been
discovered.
With only a week of observations for an orbital period that spans
almost four years, its future orbital path is still quite uncertain, but
this asteroid could be back in Earth’s neighborhood in 2032. However,
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office states the probability this
asteroid could then impact Earth is only one in 63,000. The object
should be easily observable in the coming months and once additional
observations are provided to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge,
Mass., the initial orbit calculations will be improved and the most
likely result will be a dramatic reduction, or complete elimination, of
any risk of Earth impact.
"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 our
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.
More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .
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