2013 TX68

Forums Asteroids 2013 TX68

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  • #573536
    Dawson
    Participant

    Have there been any more estimates of how close this 30m asteroid is going to get to us? There hasn’t been much “hype” in the press, though I’d read somewhere it was potentailly going to be as close as 15,000 miles which seems remarkebly close.

    James

    #577266
    Martin Mobberley
    Participant

    Hello James,

    The original 2015 arc of astrometric observations for this object was only made over three days, so the orbit was extremely uncertain, with a range of close approach distances possible. Of course, the press will always hype the closest scenario to the max! In recent weeks the orbit has been refined and the closest approach is a LOT further away now, more like 3 million miles! The MPC table (scroll down to March 7) gives 0.027 AU and the NASA page (this page has two tables, recent and upcoming, which change daily and only go back a few days after the event) gives 0.033 AU. The two pages can be found at:

    http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/CloseApp.html

    http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/

    The MPC table lists LOADS of much closer approaches as you can see! In fact, two comets pass a similar distance from the Earth at the end of the month.

    Regards,

    Martin

    #577267
    Dawson
    Participant

    Thanks Martin. I’ll take my hard hat off then; that’s a relief 🙂

    James

    #577270
    Dawson
    Participant

    It apparently passed us by at about 10x the distance of the Moon:

    http://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-2013-tx68-uncertain-trajectory-closest-earth-mar-5-2016

    Phew 🙂

    Jame

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