A 1, 300-foot asteroid whizzed by Earth in Sept., and is set to come back into "Earth's neighborhood" in 2032, but NASA gave the worried public a "reality check."
If the asteroid were to hit Earth it would be devastating, but NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office said in a statement that the chances of impact were only about one in 63,000.
Ukraine scientists, who predicted the object could hit Earth in 2032, pointed out the possible danger, although they also admit the chances are slim, Ria Novosti reported.
If the asteroid hit Earth it would create an explosion equivalent to "2,500 megatons of TNT - 50 times greater than the biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated," Ria Novosti reported.
Researchers in Italy, the UK, Russia, and Spain have, also confirmed the discovery of the asteroid, dubbed TV135.
The asteroid made a close call with Earth (within 4.2 million miles) on Sept. 16. Predictions of the object's future path are shaky because it has been observed for such a short period of time, NASA reported.
TV 135 should be easy to observe over the upcoming months, so predictions should get more solid in the near future. NASA believed further observation will show that the chances of a future impact are zero, or at least much slimmer than we believe they are now.
"To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent," Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. said in a statement. "This is a relatively new discovery. With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future."
TV135 has been given a rating of one out of 10 on the Torino scale, which classifies the danger specific space objects impose on the Earth. Only one other object currently has as high of a rating, Ria Novosti reported.
