Confirming that the 54-million-ton asteroid, of which scientists lost track nearly two decades ago, posed no threat to our Earth on October 5 this year, the US space agency said: “There are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time in the next century.”
Astronomers eventually lost track of the 984-foot asteroid after first spotting it in 2007, categorizing it as a “lost asteroid.”
In 2007, some reports stated that there was a roughly 1 in 10 million chance of 2007 FT3 colluding into Earth by March 3, 2030 or a 1 in 11.5 million chance of striking the Earth on October 5, 2024.
NASA constantly watches the sky for things called near-earth objects (NEOs) that could be potential threats to Earth. These NOEs are regularly checked and updated in NASA’s public database.
“There are no known asteroid impact threats to Earth at any time in the next century. NASA and its partners diligently watch the skies to find, track, and categorize asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs), including those that come close to Earth,” NASA told the Standard.
“An important note here is that planetary scientists define asteroid approaches that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit as close approaches. The larger an asteroid is, the easier it is for our planetary defense experts to find, meaning that their orbits around the sun are usually very well-known and understood for years or even decades,” NASA added.
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Published: 08 Jan 2024, 05:33 PM IST