Tiny asteroid zips close by earth
Baku, February 5 (AZERTAC). A tiny asteroid passed close by Earth today (Feb. 4) but posed no threat of impacting our planet - or even reaching the surface, NASA officials say.
The small asteroid, called 2011 CQ 1, passed within 3,400 miles (5471 km) of Earth at about 2:40 p.m. EST (1940 GMT). The close pass occurred just hours after the asteroid was discovered by astronomer Richard A. Kowalski, according to scientists at Remanzacco Observatory in Italy, who snapped a photo of the asteroid taken soon after it was spotted.
Asteroid 2011 CQ 1 is only 4 feet (1.3 meters) wide, so small that it would have incinerated in Earth`s atmosphere before reaching the ground, according to officials with NASA`s Asteroid Watch program. The asteroid never threatened to hit Earth, they said.
"Even if it came closer, a rocky asteroid small as 2010 CQ1 would break apart in our atmosphere and cause no ground damage," NASA Asteroid Watch scientists wrote in a Twitter post.
NASA and other astronomers routinely scan the skies to search for asteroids or comets that may be an impact threat to Earth. The Near-Earth Object Observations program at NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., tracks potentially dangerous asteroids and studies their orbits to determine if they pose a risk of hitting the Earth.
Asteroid 2011 CQ 1, however, is not dangerous or big. It`s one of the many asteroids thought to zip close by Earth unnoticed every day, NASA officials said.
"It`s predicted that tiny space rocks pass between Earth and moon almost daily but are too small to be detected and pose very little threat," Asteroid Watch scientists wrote.
That doesn`t mean skywatchers aren`t interested in the tiny space rock.
Astronomers Ernesto Guido and Giovanni Sostero at the Remanzacco Observatory are keeping a close eye on Asteroid 2011 CQ 1. After releasing the initial photo, they also added that skywatcher, Andrew Lowe, deduced the asteroid would cross across the face of the sun - which astronomers call a "transit" - shortly after its close pass by Earth.
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