An asteroid about 50 meters in diameter, discovered on Feb. 26, has an orbit that represents a low risk of hitting Earth on Feb. 14, 2046, the U.S. space agency revealed on Thursday.
“We’ve been tracking a new asteroid called 2023 DW, which has a very slim chance of hitting Earth in 2046. Often when discovering new objects for the first time, several weeks of data are needed to reduce uncertainties and assess their impacts. adequately predict in the future.”explains NASA on its social networking account Twitter which is dedicated to tracking asteroids.
We’ve been tracking a new asteroid called 2023 DW that has a very slim chance of hitting Earth in 2046. When new objects are first discovered, weeks of data are often needed to remove the uncertainties and determine their orbits. years in the future to predict adequately . (1/2) pic.twitter.com/SaLC0AUSdP
– NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 7, 2023
The asteroid’s closest approach to Earth is scheduled for February 14, 2046, 1.8 million kilometers from the planet, says the same source quoted by the agency Efe.
NASA orbit analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and will update forecasts as they have more data.
The asteroid, discovered from the MAP Observatory San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile, has an estimated diameter of 49 meters and is currently 0.12 astronomical units from Earth, circulating at a relative velocity to the Sun of 24 .63 kilometers per second (more than 88 kilometers per second). thousand kilometers per hour).
The orbital period is 271 days.
The European Space Agency’s Coordination Center for Near-Earth Objects predicted the probability of a direct impact at 1 in 625 on Wednesday, but these probabilities are being recalculated daily.
Source: DN
