![]() "This is the perfect target for such an exercise because while we know the orbit of 2012 TC4 well enough to be absolutely certain it will not impact Earth, we haven’t established its exact path just yet,” said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. ![]() Russia successfully launches 'brightest star in the night sky' - but astronomers are seeing red.But in October, large telescopes will be focused on it to reestablish its trajectory and orbit. NASA says it has been too distant and too faint to track over the last five years. "This time we are adding in another layer of effort, using this asteroid flyby to test the worldwide asteroid detection and tracking network, assessing our capability to work together in response to finding a potential real asteroid threat.”Ĭurrent knowledge on this particular asteroid is sparse - it was only studied for seven days following its initial discovery in 2012. “Scientists have always appreciated knowing when an asteroid will make a close approach to and safely pass the Earth because they can make preparations to collect data to characterize and learn as much as possible about it,” said Michael Kelley, program scientist and NASA Headquarters lead for the TC4 observation campaign.
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