Earth avoids disaster as asteroid comes as close as moon
The Earth had a near miss early today when a giant asteroid hurtled past almost as close as the Moon.
The space rock, named 2004 XP14, was travelling at 11 miles per second as it made its nearest approach to the planet at about 5.30am Irish time.
At that moment it was about 268,000 miles away, or just 1.1 times the Moon’s average distance from the Earth.
Scientists had already calculated it would not make impact but nonetheless classified it as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), along with 782 known others.
The object, discovered in December 2004, is one of a class of “Apollo” asteroids whose orbits cross that of the Earth.
Initially there were concerns that the asteroid might collide with the Earth later this century. Further analysis of its orbit has ruled this out – at least for the foreseeable future.
If XP14 did hit the Earth the effects would be devastating.
“It would probably be big enough to wipe out a small country,” said Dr David Asher, from the Armagh Observatory in the North.
He added: “At least we knew about this asteroid. We should be more worried about the unknown ones. There are quite a lot of them flying around out there that are still to be discovered.”
Scientists hope to gather valuable information about the asteroid by bouncing radar signals off it from the 230ft diameter Goldstone dish in California’s Mojave desert.
Although the object’s size is not precisely known, it is thought to range between 1,345ft and 3,018ft – between a quarter and just over a half mile wide.
“Pinging” it with radar will allow astronomers to plot future orbits much more accurately, and may help them determine the rock’s shape.
“Usually an asteroid is just a dot seen through a telescope,” said Dr Asher. “The real science here is using good radar observations to work out what shape the asteroid is. You might also be able to tell something about its surface.”
The asteroid could not be seen with the naked eye, but was spotted by seasoned observers with moderate-sized telescopes.
Another asteroid due to make an even closer fly-by on April 13, 2029, will be easy to see with the naked eye.
Asteroid 99942 Apophis, which measures about 1,000ft across, will be visible from Asia and North Africa as it passes within 20,000 miles of the Earth.
On June 30, 1908, an asteroid under 100 metres (328ft) wide exploded over Tunguska in Siberia, flattening 60 million trees over an area measuring 2,150 square km (830 square miles).
