[meteorite-list] Asteroid 1999 FN53 Distant 'Flyby' on May 14

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 14 May 2015 09:41:51 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201505141641.t4EGfpCe019937_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4588

Asteroid Distant 'Flyby' Thursday
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 13, 2015

[Graphic]
This graphic depicts the passage of asteroid 1999 FN53, which will come
no closer than 26 times the distance from Earth to the moon on May 14,
2015. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

An asteroid, designated 1999 FN53, will safely pass more than 26 times
the distance of Earth to the moon on May 14. To put it another way, at
its closest point, the asteroid will get no closer than 6.3 million miles
away (10 million kilometers). It will not get closer than that for well
over 100 years. And even then, (119 years from now) it will be so far
away it will not affect our planet in any way, shape or form. 1999 FN53
is approximately 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) across.

"This is a flyby in the loosest sense of the term," said Paul Chodas,
manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office, at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We can compute the motion of this
asteroid for the next 3,000 years and it will never be a threat to Earth.
This is a relatively unremarkable asteroid, and its distant flyby of Earth
tomorrow is equally unremarkable."

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets using both
ground- and space-based telescopes. Elements of the Near-Earth Object
Program, often referred to as "Spaceguard," discover these objects, characterize
a subset of them and identify their close approaches to determine if any
could be potentially hazardous to our planet. NASA's Near-Earth Object
Program is part of the agency's asteroid initiative, which includes sending
a robotic spacecraft to capture a boulder from the surface of a near-Earth
asteroid and move it into a stable orbit around the moon for exploration
by astronauts, all in support of advancing the nation's journey to Mars.

JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

To get updates on passing space rocks, follow:

http://twitter.com/asteroidwatch


Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

2015-168
Received on Thu 14 May 2015 12:41:51 PM PDT