A dangerous asteroid that buzzed close to Earth last month could strike us in less than 20 years. The potential collision could be as forceful as a couple of thousand atomic bombs, CNN reported.
NASA was quick to provide the good news--and reality check--that there are very few dangerous asteroids and they don't pose much of a threat.
The chances that this particular asteroid will collide with Earth are extremely small, NASA said in a statement. The space agency is 99.998 percent certain that when the asteroid whizzes by Earth in 2032, it will simply sail past us again.
"This is a relatively new discovery," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's NEO Program. "With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future."
The probability of the asteroid, which has a diameter of 1,300 feet or four football fields, striking Earth is 1:63,000, scientists say. 2013 TV135, the asteroid in question, was discovered on Oct. 8, while NASA was closed during the government shutdown.
While almost all other asteroids have ranked a 0 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, the asteroid that recently passed the Earth along with one other known asteroid has a danger rating of 1.
The 1 ranking means it poses "no unusual level of danger" and is "no cause for public attention or concern."
2013 TV135 came relatively close to Earth on Sept. 16, but the pass was no near miss. At a distance of 4.2 million miles as it flew by, the asteroid was more than 15 times as far away from Earth as the moon.
While large, the asteroid likely would not have global effects if it did happen to hit our planet.
"We believe anything larger than one to two kilometers (about 0.6 to 1.2 miles) could have worldwide effects," NASA said in a statement.
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