{"id":14327,"date":"2010-04-08T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/newfound-asteroid-will-fly-close-by-earth-thursday\/"},"modified":"2010-04-08T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T09:05:00","slug":"newfound-asteroid-will-fly-close-by-earth-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-station\/newfound-asteroid-will-fly-close-by-earth-thursday.php","title":{"rendered":"Newfound Asteroid Will Fly Close by Earth Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newly discovered asteroid<\/span> will zip close by Earth Thursday<\/span>, but poses no threat of crashing into our planet even though it is passing within the orbit of the moon.<\/span><\/p>

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The asteroid, called 2010 GA6, is a relatively small space rock<\/span> about 71 feet (22 meters) wide and was discovered by astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey<\/span> in Tucson, Az. The space rock will fly within the orbit of the moon<\/span><\/a> when it passes Earth Thursday at 7:06 p.m. EDT (2306 GMT), but NASA astronomers said not to worry...the planet is safe.<\/span><\/p>

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\"Fly bys of near-Earth objects within the moon's orbit occur every few weeks,\" said Don Yeomans of NASA<\/span>'s <\/span>Near-Earth Object<\/span> Office<\/span> at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/span> in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement.<\/span><\/p>

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At the time of its closest pass, asteroid 2010 GA6 will be about 223,000 miles (359,000 km) from the Earth<\/span>. That's about nine-tenths the distance between Earth and the moon<\/span> [more asteroid photos<\/span><\/a>]. <\/span><\/p>

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The space rock is not the first asteroid to swing close by Earth this year.<\/span><\/p>

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In January, the small asteroid 2010 AL30 passed within 80,000 miles (130,000 km) when it zipped by. Other space rocks<\/span> have flown past Earth <\/span>at more comfortable distances greater than several hundred thousand miles. <\/span><\/p>

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NASA <\/span>routinely tracks asteroids and comets that may fly near the Earth with a network of telescopes on the ground and in space. The agency's Near-Earth Object<\/span> Observations program, more commonly known as Spaceguard<\/span>, is responsible for finding potentially dangerous asteroids and studying their orbits to determine if they pose a risk of hitting the Earth.<\/span><\/p>

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NASA<\/span><\/a>'s latest space telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer<\/span> (WISE)<\/span> launched in December, has been given the task of hunting new asteroids<\/span><\/a> that were previously undetectable because they shine only in the infrared range of the light spectrum. <\/span><\/p>

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So far, the WISE <\/span>telescope has been discovering dozens of previously unknown asteroids<\/span><\/a> every day. Some of those space rocks have been tagged for closer analysis since they may be potentially hazardous to Earth, WISE mission scientists have said.<\/span><\/p>

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