NASA Tracking Newly Discovered Earth Bound Asteroid

NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office recently announced the discovery of a new asteroid that has the potential to collide with Earth. The asteroid, named 2023 DW, is roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and its potential impact is predicted to occur on Valentine's Day in 2046.

Asteroid 2023 DW was first detected on February 2, measures approximately 160 feet (about 50 meters) in diameter, and is traveling at a speed of about 15.5 miles per second (25 kilometers per second). The asteroid completes one loop around the sun every 271 days.

The European Space Agency has projected that the asteroid has a 1 in 625 chance of striking Earth, while NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Sentry system has calculated the odds to be closer to 1 in 560. The asteroid tops NASA's risk list and ranks 1 out of 10 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale

"This object is not particularly concerning...Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future" - Davide Farnocchia, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Navigation Engineer

The asteroid is expected to have ten close approaches to Earth as it orbits the sun, with the nearest predicted to occur on Valentine's Day in 2046. The remaining nine approaches are expected to occur between 2047 and 2054. The closest distance the asteroid is predicted to come to Earth is about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers).

As of March 3 2023 below is the most likely impact risk zone.