Asteroid on Path to Pass by Earth for Second Time Since 2013
The asteroid could come as close as 11,000 miles next month.
— -- A small asteroid first spotted when it flew by Earth two years ago is coming back for an encore performance next month when NASA said it could potentially make an even closer pass to our planet.
There's no danger posed to Earth by Asteroid 2013 TX68, which estimated to be about 100 feet in diameter, according to NASA. However, exactly how close it will get to Earth still remains a mystery. NASA predicts the rock could come as close as 11,000 miles to our planet or could fly past as far away as 9 million miles on March 5.
The reason for the large predicted range is because NASA was only able to track the asteroid for three days after it began approaching Earth on Oct. 6, 2013.
"Because it was not tracked for very long, scientists cannot predict its precise orbit around the sun, but they do know that it cannot impact Earth during its flyby next month," a NASA blog post explained.
When the object flies past Earth next month, it's possible it will be picked up by NASA telescopes, allowing scientists to better define the asteroid's orbit around the sun and predict future flybys.
As of now, NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies predicts an "extremely remote" chance that the asteroid could impact Earth on Sep. 28, 2017. To give an idea of how remote, NASA is putting those odds at no more than 1 in 250 million.