NASA has publicized that a 30-metre wide asteroid
passing Earth on March 5 may come so nearby that it'll be detectable in our
sky. Before anybody freaks out, there's definitely no chance that this asteroid
is going to Collide with EARTH. NASA is still calculating its precise
trajectory, but at the closest estimation, it'll be 18,000 km (11,000 miles)
away as it passes us by - which would make it simply viewable with the help of
a typical telescope.
Paul Chodas, the manager of NASA's Centre for Near
Earth Object Studies, said "This asteroid’s orbit is quite uncertain, and
it will be hard to predict where to look for it. There is a chance that the
asteroid will be picked up by our asteroid search telescopes when it safely
flies past us next month, providing us with data to more precisely define its
orbit around the Sun."
Chodas continued "The possibilities of
collision on any of the three future flyby dates are far too small to be of any
real concern. I fully expect any future observations to reduce the probability
even more."
If asteroid 2013 TX68 did smash Earth's
atmosphere, NASA forecasts it would yield an air burst about twice the energy
of the Chelyabinsk event.