NASA has discovered an asteroid the size of an Olympic-size swimming pool that has a “small chance” of colliding with Earth in 23 years, with a possible impact on Valentine’s Day in 2046, according to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
The asteroid has a 1 in 625 chance of hitting Earth, based on projections of data from the European Space Agency, although NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory watchdog has calculated odds closer to 1 in 560. The lab tracks potential collisions with celestial bodies.
And the closest asteroid, called 2023 DW, which is expected to reach our planet, is currently about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km) from Earth, according to CNN.
And 2023 DW is the only object on NASA’s hazard list that ranks 1 out of 10 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, a scale for rating the expected risk of an object hitting Earth. All other asteroids are rated at 0 on the Turin scale.
Although DW 2023 tops the list, a rating of 1 means only “the chance of a collision is extremely unlikely without cause for public concern or concern,” while a rating of 0 means “the probability of a collision occurring is zero, or so low that it would Probably zero.
However, NASA officials warn that the odds of an asteroid impact could change dramatically as more observations are collected around 2023 DW and additional analysis is performed.
“Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits for years into the future,” NASA said on Twitter a few days ago.
And last October, NASA announced the success of its dual mission to test the reorientation of an asteroid (Dart), which led to changing the trajectory of a small asteroid by launching a spacecraft to collide with it.
NASA is tracking an asteroid that could hit Earth on Valentine’s Day in 2046
