Phew! Giant Asteroid Not a Threat to Earth, NASA Says

Phew! Giant Asteroid Not a Threat to Earth, NASA Says
by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer | December 09, 2014 01:00pm ET

Claims that Russian scientists have discovered a huge asteroid that could threaten Earth in the near future are just not correct, according to NASA.

Recent news reports from Russia have stated that a researcher discovered a 1,312-foot (400 meters) space rock that could pose a danger to Earth. However, calculations from NASA and the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, show that the asteroid 2014 UR116 does not pose a danger to Earth for at least the next 150 years.
Read More »

http://www.space.com/27958-russian-asteroid-impact-fears-2014-ur116.html

The_observer said:

Phew! Giant Asteroid Not a Threat to Earth, NASA Says

Phew! Giant Asteroid Not a Threat to Earth, NASA Says
by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer | December 09, 2014 01:00pm ET

Claims that Russian scientists have discovered a huge asteroid that could threaten Earth in the near future are just not correct, according to NASA.

Recent news reports from Russia have stated that a researcher discovered a 1,312-foot (400 meters) space rock that could pose a danger to Earth. However, calculations from NASA and the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, show that the asteroid 2014 UR116 does not pose a danger to Earth for at least the next 150 years.
Read More »

http://www.space.com/27958-russian-asteroid-impact-fears-2014-ur116.html

You may want to compare this with the asteroid 99942 Apophis. Apophis’s diameter was initially estimated at 450 metres, later revised to 350 metres. The close encounter of Apophis will be in 2029, with a further possible close encounter in 2036.

It’s only just occurred to me that Apophis is the first and most relentless enemy of Earth in the Stargate series. That has to be a coincidence, doesn’t it? 99942 Apophis was first considered a threat in 2004 and he appeared in Stargate in 1997 (or 1994).

> “While this approximately 400-meter sized asteroid has a three-year orbital period around the sun and returns to the Earth’s neighborhood periodically, it does not represent a threat, because its orbital path does not pass sufficiently close to the Earth’s orbit.”

That’s quite a high eccentricity. A three year orbit crossing Earth’s.