Image of asteroid “2023DW” said to have potential for collision / NASA
2023.03.10 Web posted at 12:08 JST
（＆ＮＮ） NASA’s Office of the Planetary Defense Coordinator has said there is a “small chance” that a newly discovered asteroid will hit Earth in 23 years.
Asteroid 2023DW is likely to hit Earth on February 14, 2046. The European Space Agency (ESA) predicts a 1 in 625 chance of collision, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory puts it at about 1 in 560.
2023DW was the only asteroid rated 1 on NASA’s Turin Scale, which ranks the risk of a celestial body colliding with Earth on an 11-point scale from 0 to 10. All other celestial bodies are rated as ” 0″.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory defines a ‘1’ classification as “the probability of a collision is extremely low, and there is no reason for the public to pay attention or worry about it”. “0” is defined as “the probability of collision is zero, or as low as practically zero.”
As for 2023DW, an expert said, “There is no particular concern about this object.”
Further observations and analysis of 2023DW could change the collision probability significantly.
Newly discovered asteroids generally look more dangerous when first observed. But “more often than not, the threat associated with a particular celestial body will diminish if additional observations are made,” explains NASA’s Near-Earth Object Laboratory.
2023DW is approximately 50 meters in diameter. It is expected to approach Earth 10 times during its orbit around the Sun, with its closest approach on February 14, 2046, and the remaining 9 times between 2047 and 2054. At its closest approach, it will pass a distance of approx. 1.8 million kilometers from Earth.
It was first discovered on February 2nd. It is approximately 18 million kilometers from Earth and orbits the Sun at a speed of approximately 25 kilometers per second with a period of 271 days.
