Asteroid to shave past Earth inside Moon orbit – ESA | Inquirer News

Asteroid to shave past Earth inside Moon orbit – ESA

/ 12:01 AM August 11, 2017

22543615 – danger from space – asteroid armageddon

PARIS, France – An asteroid the size of a house will shave past Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometers (27,300 miles) in October, inside the Moon’s orbit, astronomers said Thursday.

The space rock will zoom by at an eighth of the distance from the — far enough to just miss our geostationary satellites orbiting at about 36,000 kilometers, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

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“It will not hit the Earth,” said Detlef Koschny of ESA’s “Near Earth Objects” research team. “That’s the most important thing to say.”

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The asteroid, dubbed TC4, first flitted past our planet in October 2012 — then at about double the distance before disappearing. It is about 15-30 meters (49-98 feet) long.

Scientists expected the asteroid to return for a near-Earth rendezvous this year, but did not know how far.

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Now, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has managed to track down the rock and determine its distance.

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“It’s damn close,” said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

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“The farthest satellites are 36,000 kilometers out, so this is indeed a close miss,” he told AFP, adding it was nothing to lose sleep over.

“As close as it is right now, I think this prediction is pretty safe… meaning that it will miss.”

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TAGS: Asteroid, earth, Moon

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