Near impact: asteroid to narrowly miss EarthAgence France-Presse
WASHINGTON – Hold on to your hats: an asteroid will zoom within
spitting distance of Earth next week, in what NASA said Thursday
is the closest flyby ever predicted for an object this large.
The 2012 DA 14, discovered by chance by astronomers after
passing nearby last February, will be just around 17,200 miles
(27,700 kilometers) above Earth’s surface when it speeds by, the
US Space Agency said. That’s outside the Earth’s atmosphere, but
closer than the orbit of most weather and communications
satellites. However, despite the close shave, NASA said there
was nothing to fear. “This asteroid’s orbit is so well known
that we can say with confidence that even considering it’s
orbital uncertainties, it can pass no closer than 17,100 miles
from the Earth’s surface. So no Earth impact is possible,” said
Donald Yeomans of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “At the same
time, it will pass 5,000 miles inside the ring” of satellites,
Yeomans told reporters,