NASA: Near-Earth-Asteroid 2014 UR116 No Threat to Earth

Short animation of NASA images showing the rotation of the second largest
Near-Earth-Object, Asteroid 433 Eros, which was visited by the Near Earth
Asteroid - Shoemaker space probe in 2000. Another fairly large, Near-Earth-
Asteroid, 2014 UR116, was recently discovered and found not to be a threat to
Earth, despite some media reports to the contrary.
(Image Sources: NASA, Wikipedia.org )

NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
2014 December 8

Some recent press reports have suggested that an asteroid designated 2014 UR116, found on 2014 October 27, at the MASTER-II observatory in Kislovodsk, Russia, represents an impact threat to the Earth. While this approximately 400-meter sized asteroid has a three year orbital period around the sun and returns to the Earth's neighborhood periodically, it does not represent a threat because its orbital path does not pass sufficiently close to the Earth's orbit.

Furthermore, Tim Spahr, Director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge Massachusetts, has also re-computed this object's orbit after noticing that it was the same as an object observed six years ago. Using both sets of observations, the future motion of this asteroid was carried further forward in time using the automatic computations made by the Sentry system at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. These computations rule out this object as an impact threat to Earth (or any other planet) for at least the next 150 years.

Any statements about risk for impact of discovered asteroids and comets should be verified by scientists and the media by accessing NASA' Near Earth Object (NEO) Program web site at
Link >>> http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/

or the European equivalent, the NEO Dynamic Site at
Link >>> http://newton.dm.unipi.it/neodys/index.php?pc=4.1

Source: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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