A new study has been released by NASA that confirms a huge asteroid will pass earth in 28 years, but NASA has ruled out any possible threat of a crash landing in 2040.
NASA determined last week that based on new analysis from the agency's Near-Earth Object Program Office in California, the risk of collision in 2040 has "been eliminated."
The new observations have allowed astronomers to see the 460-foot-wide asteroid that was first discovered last year according to Space.com.
Experts believe that the asteroid won't get closer than 550,000 miles from earth, or about twice the distance between the Earth and the moon.
"These were extremely difficult observations of a very faint object," the University of Hawaii's Richard Wainscoat, a member of the team of researchers monitoring 2011 AG5, said in a press statement. "We were surprised by how easily the Gemini telescope was able to recover such a faint asteroid so low in the sky."
Astronomers and other experts monitor the sky on a daily basis to search for asteroids that could cause a problem if they crashed onto Earth. Around 9,000 different near-earth asteroids have been discovered so far, but over a million could exist that just haven't been found yet according to Space.com.
Observing the asteroid was not easy according to astronomers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.
"The second effect is the turbulence of the atmosphere makes things fainter," said David Tholen, an astronomer for the Hawaii Institute to CNN. "We had to keep trying over and over until we got one of those nights when the atmosphere was calm."
Since first being discovered in January 2011, the asteroid has been monitored closely and experts had discussed how Earth might be impacted if a crash were to occur. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden previously stated that the 2011 AG5 was "high on NASA's list of NEOs to monitor for impact hazard potential."
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