Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Is Still 27 Million Miles Away From Earth, NASA

Due to the reactivated spacecraft the NASA recently discovered a new, “potentially hazardous” asteroid and it is headed in Earth’s track.

The new asteroid called 2013 YP139 was spotted by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-filed Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE), and marks the spacecraft’s first discovery since being resurrected last year.

“The asteroid is still 27 million miles (43 million km) away from Earth, but with a diameter of nearly half a mile (0.4 miles, to be precise), an impact with our planet would cause significant damage.

NASA estimates any asteroid with a diameter greater than 0.5 miles could create worldwide consequences upon impact,” according to the Telegraph.

Fortunately, the space organization further that the asteroid will miss the Earth this time around, though it will fly by our planet at a distance of 300,000 miles, or about as close as the moon. It’s not expected to get any closer for the next century.

Before going into “hibernation,” the NEOWISE had discovered more than 34,000 asteroids in 2010 and 2011, with potentially hundreds of discoveries to the front. The spacecraft scans what’s typically a static space background, looking for disruptions it can go behind and investigate.

Amy Mainzer (NASA’s jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is leading the mission) said that, “We are delighted to get back to finding and characterizing asteroids and comets, especially those that come into Earth’s neighborhood,”

According to the Huffington, “With our infrared sensors that detect heat, we can learn about their sizes and reflectiveness,”

According to the scientist, “The star’s particles are interacting with neighboring magnetic fields, causing a glowing reaction. The star is approximately 12 miles in diameter and spins about seven times every second,”

Potentially Hazardous' Asteroid Is Still 27 Million Miles Away From Earth, NASA