A potentially dangerous asteroid approaches but without any risk

If the asteroid 2002 AJ129 with a passage considered close to the Earth is said to be potentially dangerous, this name can be misleading. 

O asteroide 2017 AG13 passou despercebido pelos radares espaciais e foi descoberto apenas este sábado, quando já estava se aproximando da Terra (iStock/‘Asteroide surpresa’ passa próximo à Terra)

 Discovered mid-January 2002, the asteroid 2002 AJ129 is classified as a potentially dangerous object. On February 4th at 22:30 (Paris time), this asteroid with a size of about 1.2 km will pass at a distance of nearly 4.2 million kilometers from us.

This distance, which is more than ten times the distance between the Earth and the Moon, will be the closest approach to the asteroid. Even though it is presented as a potentially dangerous object, NASA writes that there is "no real threat of collision with our planet in the foreseeable future."

Related: In 2018, twenty dangerous asteroids will graze the Earth 
 
"We have been following this asteroid for more than 14 years and we are very familiar with its orbit," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. "Our calculations indicate that the 2002 asteroid AJ129 has no chance - zero - of colliding with the Earth on February 4 or anytime in the next 100 years."

The term "potentially dangerous" refers to asteroids that pass less than 7.5 million km from our blue planet, and with a size greater than 140 m.


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