Small Asteroid to Pass Within Earth-Moon System Tuesday
October 11, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. -- A small asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday
within the Earth-moon system. The asteroid, 2010 TD54, will have its
closest approach to Earth's surface at an altitude of about 45,000
kilometers (27,960 miles) at 6:50 EDT a.m. (3:50 a.m. PDT). At that
time, the asteroid will be over southeastern Asia in the vicinity of
Singapore. During its flyby, Asteroid 2010 TD54 has zero probability of
impacting Earth. A telescope of the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey
north of Tucson, Arizona discovered 2010 TD54 on Oct. 9 at (12:55 a.m.
PDT) during routine monitoring of the skies.
2010 TD54 is estimated to be about 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) wide.
Due to its small size, the asteroid would require a telescope of
moderate size to be viewed. A five-meter-sized near-Earth asteroid from
the undiscovered population of about 30 million would be expected to
pass daily within a lunar distance, and one might strike Earth's
atmosphere about every 2 years on average. If an asteroid of the size
of 2010 TD54 were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to
burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface.
The distance used on the
Near Earth Object page
is always the calculated distance from the center of Earth. The
distance stated for 2010 TD54 is 52,000 kilometers (32,000 miles). To
get the distance it will pass from Earth's surface you need to subtract
the distance from the center to the surface (which varies over the
planet), or about one Earth radii. That puts the pass distance at about
45,500 kilometers (28,000 miles) above the planet. NASA detects, tracks
and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using
both ground-and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object
Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these
objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to
determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.
JPL manages
the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
More information about asteroids is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/ . You can also follow the latest news about asteroids on Twitter at @asteroidwatch .
