Washington, Feb 6 (IANS) A small asteroid that is expected to make its closest approach to Earth on March 5 will pass peacefully without disturbing our world at a distance of between 9,000-17,000 km.
According to NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the asteroid named 2013 TX68 will keep passing on a regular basis but there is very rarely any cause for alarm.
The only noticeable thing is that the asteroid will get far closer to Earth than the Moon ever does.
Roughly 100 feet in diameter, the near-Earth asteroid will pass the Earth us again in September 2017 and will be making flybys in 2046 and 2097 and in all cases, the odds of an impact are even lower.
The possibilities of a 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 , said Paul Chodas, manager of CNEOS, in a recent statement
"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", he added.
An asteroid measuring 65 feet broke up in the atmosphere over the Russian town of Chelyabinsk in 2013, causing property damage and over 1,500 injuries.
