An asteroid set to fly by earth 2040, won't hit earth, scientists confirm. Space.com reported that the 460-foot wide asteroid was discovered last year and scientists at the time said that it had a 1 in 500 chance of hitting earth.
Scientists have now confirmed that the asteroid, called 2011 AG5, should not get any closer than 550,000 miles which is about twice the distance between the earth and the moon.
" NASA put out a call to scientists to observe the asteroid and astronomers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa took the job on. They observed the asteroid over a few days in October, reported CNN.
"These were extremely difficult observations of a very faint object," University of Hawaii's Richard Wainscoat who is a part of the team monitoring the asteroid said on a statement according to Space.com.. "We were surprised by how easily the Gemini telescope was able to recover such a faint asteroid so low in the sky."
New observations were made on the telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. CNN reported that NASA said on Friday, "An analysis of the new data conducted by NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, shows that the risk of collision in 2040 has been eliminated."
CNN reported that if the asteroid collided with the moon it would release approximately 100 megatons of energy. This would be "several thousand times more powerful than the atomic bombs that ended World War II, according to the Gemini Observatory," reported CNN.
It wasn't an easy task, observing the asteroid. Since the asteroid was close to the sun, astronomers had to observe it when it was dark in the sky.
"The second effect is the turbulence of the atmosphere makes things fainter," David Tholen, an astronomer at University of Hawaii said to CNN. "We had to keep trying over and over until we got one of those nights when the atmosphere was calm."
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