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NASA DISCOVERS ASTEROID THAT COULD HIT EARTH ON VALENTINES DAY IN 2046

Published: 2023-03-20 19:25:35 Last Updated: 2023-03-21 10:45:25

Sixty-six-million-years-ago, a huge asteroid crashed into the earth. The collision not only wiped out the dinosaurs, but also created a huge crater under the Yucatan Peninsula. So it's not surprising that NASA is closely monitoring potential asteroid threats. And a government agency just broke the news that a newly discovered asteroid could hit Earth on Valentine's Day 2046.
According to NASA's Planetary Space Agency, DW has a "small chance" of making contact with our planet in 2023. While 2023 DW is currently over 11 million miles from Earth, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Sentry system gives it a 1 in 560 chance of hitting Earth.

We've been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2046. Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/SaLC0AUSdP
— NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) March 7, 2023

Davide Farnocchia, a navigational engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told CNN the asteroid isn't a big problem, but the space agency is still gathering information about its orbit. NASA's Asteroid Watch Twitter account wrote that following the discovery of a new asteroid, "several weeks of data are required to reduce uncertainty and adequately predict their orbits for years to come."

If further analysis shows that DW 2023 poses a greater threat than originally thought, NASA will be ready. In September 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Darth) completed its first mission, successfully knocking a stadium-size asteroid out of Earth's orbit.

Article Tags: Viral Day Valentines Earth Asteroid NASA