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New radar observations of Near Earth Asteroid 1950 DA made last year when it passed within 20 lunar distances of the Earth suggest it may collide with the Earth. In a paper published today in the journal Science, Dr Steve Ostro and colleages from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory have announced the results of calculations of the orbit of the asteroid that suggest it has a 1 in 300 chance of colliding with the Earth in the year 2880.
The asteroid is nearly 1.1 km in diameter and if it does collide with the Earth will produced a crater 22 km in diameter and generate a blast of radius 300 km. If the collision occur in an ocean it will generate a tsunami (tidal wave) that could be as high as 250 m at a coastline 1000 km away.
The orbit of asteroid 1950 DA is very precisely known, allowing scientists to explore its future evolution for many centuries. It is rated 2 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, and will be carefully monitored in the future. If necessary the path of the asteroid could be changed to avert an impact.
More info: Science (the journal)
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