That's close! NASA says an asteroid will miss Earth by 553,000 miles in 2040
Not only did Earth survive the Mayan doomsday prophecy but now it appears we've dodged an asteroid as well. Somebody up there likes us.
NASA has revealed that an asteroid feared to be on a collision course with the planet in 2040 now poses no threat at all.
'An analysis of the new data conducted by NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shows that the risk of collision in 2040 has been eliminated,' NASA declared Friday.
Safe: New research shows an asteroid heading in our direction will actually miss the planet in 2040 rather than collide with Earth
Dangerous: Had the asteroid hit Earth the resulting blast would have been thousands of times that of an atomic bomb
The asteroid is 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter, and will get no closer to Earth than 890,000 kilometers (553,000 miles), more than twice the distance to the moon.
Previously uncertainties about the orbit of the asteroid, designated 2011 AG5, allowed for less than a 1 per cent chance it would strike the earth in February 2040.
To better understand the odds, NASA recruited astronomers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa to observe the asteroid over several days in October.
Hawaii's observations, done using a Gemini 8-meter telescope, reduce the orbit uncertainties by more than a factor of 60.
So scientists can say for certain our planet is not among the the asteroid's possible future paths.
Had it struck the earth the impact would've likely released 100 megatons of energy, a blast several thousand times more powerful than an atomic bomb.
Observing the asteroid was difficult because of its proximity to the sun, said David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.
Watched: Hawaiian researches studied the asteroid's rotation for days this summer
There was only 30 minutes of time when the light was correct to see the asteroid.
Also, because they were looking at the it low in the sky, they were viewing it through more atmosphere, which can make the asteroid fainter.
'The second effect is the turbulence of the atmosphere makes things fainter,' Tholen said. 'We had to keep trying over and over until we got one of those nights when the atmosphere was calm.'
And because the asteroid was elongated its brightness changes as it rotates.
'This object was changing its brightness by a factor of three or four -- it was just enormously variable,' Tholen said. 'It was hit and miss depending on which night you observed it.'
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