It will pass by the Sun at less than a tenth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. There is a small chance that the Sun's gravitational field could pull it to pieces. ESA uses cookies to track visits to our website only, no personal information is collected. By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
OK Find out more about our cookie policy. Toggle navigation Toggle navigation. Toggle mission navigation. Missions Show All Missions. Notify me of new posts via email. Create a website or blog at WordPress. Its coma, or head, and a portion of its tail are visible in this image taken from Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
Email required Address never made public. Name required. Four unusual Earth-crossing asteroids were also discovered using NEAT, which is the world's first autonomous imaging system. As a result of its brightness at magnitude Of the other Earth-crossers, EO has a diameter of about 1 kilometer 0. It is not on a collision course with Earth, but asteroids of this size and larger have been identified by the scientific community as sufficient to cause severe damage over a large area of Earth should one impact the planet, Helin noted.
Astronomers speculate that this object may be an extinct comet, having passed close to the Sun enough times to have lost its gaseous atmosphere. Although small, Helin believes this asteroid may prove to be a possible candidate for a future spacecraft fly-by mission, given its very low inclination of 1 degree relative to the ecliptic plane.
Discovery of the four new Earth-crossing asteroids represented half of all the Earth-crossing asteroids discovered worldwide during the month of March. Two of the discoveries -- EN and FR3 -- are classified as "potentially hazardous asteroids," being capable of coming exceedingly close to the Earth.
March was the first "good weather" month for NEAT astronomers since the new electronic camera came on-line in December , said Dr. Steven Pravdo, manager of the project at JPL. The March observing run alone produced more than 1, asteroid sightings, including high-inclination inner-belt asteroids and a number of potential Mars-crossers. Total detections since NEAT went on-line in December have climbed to more than 2, objects, of which about 45 percent are known objects and more than to date are new discoveries receiving new designations.
When the camera is upgraded later this month to use a very large 4, by 4,pixel charge-coupled device CCD , astronomers expect to detect four times the number of comets and asteroids currently being observed.
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