NASA says recently spotted asteroid 2014 UR116 no risk for Earth

asteroid
An artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA says a newly spotted 1,300-foot (400-meter) wide asteroid is not a threat to hit Earth, despite recent media reports.

NASA's Near Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said the asteroid, discovered in October by Russian scientists, won't even get that close to Earth in the next 150 years. And it isn't a to any other planet, either.

Calculations by NASA and Harvard say the closest asteroid 2014 UR116, will get to Earth is about 2.7 million miles in April 2047. Yeomans said that is so far away that it doesn't make NASA's running list of risky near-Earth objects.

Yeomans said in-depth analysis confirmed that that the would not near Earth soon.

More information: neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news187.html

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Citation: NASA says recently spotted asteroid 2014 UR116 no risk for Earth (2014, December 9) retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2014-12-nasa-asteroid-ur116-earth.html
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