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A Close Asteroid Flyby of Earth in October Will Give Scientists Tracking Practice
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | August 1, 2017 07:00am ET
Scientists around the world will be watching especially keenly when a house-size asteroid zooms safely past Earth this October.
The asteroid 2012 TC4, which is thought to be between 33 feet and 100 feet (10 to 30 meters) wide, will give Earth a close shave on Oct. 12, potentially coming as close to our planet as 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers), NASA officials said.
There's no danger of an impact by the space rock on this pass. But astronomers will be following the flyby closely, as a way of testing the international asteroid detection and tracking network. [In Images: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids Near Earth]
"This is a team effort that involves more than a dozen observatories, universities and labs across the globe so we can collectively learn the strengths and limitations of our near-Earth object observation capabilities," project leader Vishnu Reddy, of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, said in a statement.
More:
https://www.space.com/37676-asteroid-2012-tc4-earth-flyby-tracking-practice.html?utm_source=notification
