PASADENA, CALIFORNIA — NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on Tuesday that an asteroid could pass extremely close to Earth next month, much closer than the Moon.
Asteroid 2013 TX68 will make its closest pass by Earth on March 5. The asteroid, which has a diameter of 100 feet (30 meters), could pass as far out as 9 million miles (14 million kilometers) or as close as 11,000 miles (17,000 kilometers). The average distance of the Moon from the Earth, by comparison, is 238,555 miles (384,400 kilometers), according to NASA.
According to NASA, the variation in the distance depends on the trajectory of the asteroid, which scientists could not predict, since they were only able to track the asteroid for a few days after it was discovered on Oct. 6, 2013.
What NASA scientists are sure about is that there is no chance the asteroid could hit the Earth this time, although there is a 1-in-250-million chance it could hit our planet on its next pass, on Sep. 28, 2017.
Even if it does hit the Earth, it is too small to cause any real damage. It would likely break up in the atmosphere and blow apart in an explosion from an incoming asteroid called an "air burst."
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