Asteroid to give Earth a close shave next week
Pastor Dale Morgan
Asteroid to give Earth a close shave next week*
by Staff Writers
Paris (AFP) Jan 23, 2008
A huge asteroid will zoom past Earth next week at such a close distance
that amateur astronomers should be able to spot it, specialists said on
Wednesday.
Measuring between 150 and 600 metres (yards) across, asteroid 2007 TU24
would inflict devastating regional damage were it to hit Earth, but
there is no risk of any collision, they said.
It will fly by on Tuesday, being around 534,000 kilometres (334,000
miles) from the Earth at its closest point at 0834 GMT, according to a
Near Earth Object (NEO) database compiled by the University of Pisa in
Italy.
"For a brief time the asteroid will be observable in dark and clear
skies with amateur telescopes of three inches (7.5 centimetres) or
larger," NASA said on its NEO site
(http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news157.html).
2007 TU24 will make the closest approach of any known potentially
hazardous asteroid of this size or larger until 2027, NASA said, adding
that objects of this size come close to Earth about every five years or
so on average.
The rock was discovered only last October under a surveillance programme
run by the University of Arizona.
According to the Minor Planet Center of the Paris-based International
Astronomical Union (IAU), the closest detected approach by an asteroid
was on March 31, 2004 by 2004 FU162, which came within 6,500 kms (4,000
miles) of Earth.
The day after 2007 TU24's terrestrial flyby, asteroid 2007 WD5 is
expected to come within 26,000 kms (16,250 miles) of Mars, a distance
that is less than a whisker in space terms.
2007 WD5 ignited a brief surge of excitement among astronomers after it
was discovered in November.
Initial computations of its orbit gave a roughly 1-in-25 chance that it
might whack into Mars on January 30, providing a celestial show that
could be monitored by US and European scoutcraft there.
Measuring about 50 metres (165 feet) across, it would have delivered an
impact equivalent to a three-megatonne nuclear weapon. A rock of this
size exploded over Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908, felling around 80 million
trees over 2,200 square kms (850 square miles).
But further calculation showed that the hoped-for big splat would be a
big miss.
"It's highly unlikely that it's going to hit," said NEO expert Benny
Peiser of Liverpool John Moores University in northwestern England, as
the odds of a collision by 2007 WD5 fell to around 0.01 percent, or one
in 10,000.