The small asteroid about 30 meters in diameter, named 2013 TX68 , passed close to Earth two years ago at a fairly safe and comfortable distance of around 2 million kilometers. According to data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California (USA), this asteroid will approach our planet again in a few days, specifically on March 5, although this time it will be much closer.
JPL scientists have not been able to determine precisely how far it will pass the Earth: it could fly over Earth at 14 million kilometers (at the far end) or 17,000 kilometers (at the nearest end). This variation in the closest approach distance is due to the wide range of possible trajectories that this object has, since it was followed for a short time after its discovery and its orbit is at the moment quite uncertain . Be that as it may, none of the researchers exposes the possibility of an impact against the Earth.
For their part, experts from CNEOS, JPL’s Center for the Study of Near-Earth Objects, have determined a probability, albeit quite remote, that 2013 TX68 will hit the Earth: it would be September 28, 2017. and the expected impact would be 1 in 250 million.
“ The chances of a collision on any of the three future flyby dates are too small to be of any real concern. I fully rely on all future observations to reduce the probability even further, ”explains Paul Chodas, manager of CNEOS.
The asteroid, which was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on October 6, 2013 as it approached Earth on the night side, will not fly over our planet again until the year 2046 and then in 2097 . In both cases the probabilities of impact are much lower.
To know the next approaches of objects to the Earth , NASA updates a public list with the state of the situation of each one of the asteroids.
