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Space Rock Hurtles Past Earth
Monday, January 7, 2002
The BBC

Diagram Credit: Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse -- BBC News Online.

"It is a reminder of the objects that are out there. It is a reminder of what is going to happen unless we track them more efficiently than we do and make better preparations to defend our planet," Dr Benny Peiser of Liverpool John Moores University, UK, told BBC News Online.

An asteroid discovered just a month ago is making a close approach to the Earth.

Although there is no danger of collision with it, astronomers say that its proximity reminds us just how many objects there are in space that could strike our planet with devastating consequences.

Moving closer to the Sun, the asteroid is passing by at less than three times the Moon's distance from us -- just 830,000 kilometres (510,000 miles) away on 7 January, which is close in cosmic terms.

It is thought to be 300 metres in size - large enough to wipe out an entire country if it struck the Earth.

'Potentially hazardous'

2001 YB5 was discovered in early December by the Neat (Near Earth Asteroid Tracking) survey telescope observing from Mount Palomar in California, US.

Astronomers call it an Apollo object because it has a highly elliptical orbit that crosses the orbits of Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury. It circles the Sun every 1,321 days.

Astronomers also add that it is "potentially hazardous", meaning there is a slim chance that it may strike the Earth sometime in the future.
(More: BBC.co.UK News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Dan