A mammoth asteroid that had been feared to be on a collision course with Earth will not slam into the planet but fly safely past, Nasa have announced.
Astronomers had been worried that 460ft-wide asteroid 2011 AG5 was on course to ram into the Earth in 2040, with fears that such a huge rock could devastate an area 100 miles wide.
However, the latest observations of the asteroid and projections of its trajectory are now agreed to show that it has a greater than 99 per cent chance of missing the planet.
Near miss: This graphic released by Nasa shows the orbit and current location of asteroid 2011 AG5, which had been feared to be on a collision course with the Earth
The space rock was discovered in January last year by the Nasa-supported Catalina Sky Survey, operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Several observatories monitored 2011 AG5 for nine months before it moved too far away and grew too faint to see.
‘While there is general consensus there is only a very small chance that we could be dealing with a real impact scenario for this object, we will still be watchful and ready to take further action if additional observations indicate it is warranted,’ said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Several years ago another asteroid, named Apophis, was thought to pose a similar impact threat in 2036.
Additional observations taken from 2005 through 2008 enabled NASA scientists to refine their understanding of the asteroid’s path, which showed a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter.
‘Any time we’re able to observe an asteroid and obtain new location data, we’re able to refine our calculations of the asteroid’s future path,’ said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s NEO Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
‘When few observations exist, our initial orbit calculation will include a wider swath to account for uncertainties. With more data points, the knowledge of the potential positions of the asteroid improves and the swath becomes smaller – typically eliminating the risk of an impact.’
