Summary:
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According to a tweet from NASA on Tuesday, there is a highly slim probability that a newly discovered asteroid will hit Earth in 2046. The asteroid, which is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, may arrive on Valentine’s Day in 2046 if it does.
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According to Nasa, the asteroid will approach Earth at roughly 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometres). But, scientists caution that more data may affect their projections as they continue to gather it.
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According to Nasa, the asteroid 2023 DW has a one in 560 chance of striking Earth.
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It is the sole asteroid on NASA’s risk list with a Torino Impact Hazard Scale score of 1. The scale, which ranges from 0 to 10, gauges the likelihood of spacecraft hitting Earth.
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Scientific American states that the asteroid was far broader at 7.5 miles (12 kilometres).Yet, if 2023 DW were to collide with a major city or a densely populated area, it might potentially inflict serious harm.
According to a tweet from NASA on Tuesday, there is a highly slim probability that a newly discovered asteroid will hit Earth in 2046.
The asteroid, which is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, may arrive on Valentine’s Day in 2046 if it does.
According to Nasa, the asteroid will approach Earth at roughly 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometres).
But, scientists caution that more data may affect their projections as they continue to gather it.
According to Nasa, the asteroid 2023 DW has a one in 560 chance of striking Earth. It is the sole asteroid on NASA’s risk list with a Torino Impact Hazard Scale score of 1.
The scale, which ranges from 0 to 10, gauges the likelihood of spacecraft hitting Earth. The scale’s other objects all have a rank of 0, meaning there is no chance of collision.
According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA, a collision would be improbable and would not warrant public worry if it were to occur.
Davide Farnocchia, a JPL navigation engineer, said this item is not alarming.
2023 DW would not have the same catastrophic results as the asteroid that wiped out the Earth’s dinosaurs 66 million years ago if it did collide with us. Scientific American states that the asteroid was far broader at 7.5 miles (12 kilometres).
Yet, if 2023 DW were to collide with a major city or a densely populated area, it might potentially inflict serious harm. Ten years ago, a meteor less than half the size of 2023 DW burst above Chelyabinsk, Russia, sending a shock wave that broke 200 square kilometres of windows and injured almost 1,500 people.
Although it seems impossible, scientists have been preparing for an encounter with an asteroid for years. In October last year, NASA announced that the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which involved ramming a spaceship into a small asteroid, had successfully altered the asteroid’s course.
Mr Farnocchia stated, “That’s why we flew that mission, which was a stunning success.
