The primary objective of DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was to test our ability to alter the asteroid's trajectory as it orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos. The stony monster is two-thirds of a mile (1.1 kilometers) across and has a chance of impacting Earth several centuries from now on March 16, 2880, to be exact. It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour,. Astronomers say they have discovered the largest planet killer-sized asteroid in eight years, and that the huge space rock will cross Earth's orbit. The killer asteroid will be accompanied by its 500-foot-wide moon, which will be orbiting it. Dimorphos is a moonlet of Didymos, which is defined as a near-Earth asteroid and has a shape like a . Kelly lives with her family in Wisconsin. It would be a mass extinction event like hasnt been seen on Earth in millions of years, he said. The . Science news, great photos, sky alerts. What we need now to complete this story is to recover some of these rocks and find out what kind of material made up asteroid 2022 WJ1. Asteroids spotted just before hitting Earth Officials said this was the seventh time an asteroid had been detected just before it hit Earth. #C8FF042Predicted time of atmospheric entry is 8:26 UTC, over the great lakes. I OBSERVED THE METEOROID THAT JUST EXPLODED OVER LAKE ERIE (#C8FF042) WITH THE LOWELL DISCOVERY TELESCOPE WOOOOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/2lJmo4udH8, Dr. Teddy Kareta (@teddykareta) November 19, 2022. In this low likelihood versus high consequences scenario, investing in protecting the planet from dangerous cosmic objects may give humanity some peace of mind and could prevent a catastrophe. The asteroid Bennu is 1,620 feet (490 meters) in diameter. A "potentially hazardous" asteroid measuring more than a mile long will zoom past Earth this week, the largest asteroid expected to get relatively close to our . It most likely poses no threat to Earth. NASA says there are nearly 29,000 near-Earth asteroidsin space, but 1989 JA is one of 878 that areat least3,280 feet wide. A question that troubles many people: Will an asteroid hit Earth in 2022? The space agency also maintains a record of their movement with the help of NASA Asteroid watch data on its official website. Green like a bright emerald then bright orange really quickly. One of the most recent instances also involvedSrneczky; in March 2022, a fridge-sized asteroid about 6-feet-long hit Earth twohours after he initially spotted it. On Wednesday at 1:21 a.m. Eastern time, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, or DART, from a U.S. Space Force base in California (it was Tuesday local time). Millions of objects of various sizes orbit the Sun. Something went wrong while submitting the form. It would remain at Apophis for several months afterwards. There is no reason for concern over 1950 DA, reads the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies page on the asteroid. If a celestial body of this size crashed into Earth, it could destroy an entire city and cause extreme regional devastation. Exactly seven years from todayon April 13, 2029the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) called Apophis will pass inside the orbits of our geosynchronous satellites. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BY. Smaller asteroids, like the one that exploded over Russia in 2013, can strike Earth without warning, but larger, more dangerous objects have surprised astronomers, too. I would like to subscribe to Science X Newsletter. This is an important question to ask when one considers the potential consequences. A huge asteroid that flew by Earth wasone of the closest approaches ever, NASA says, NASA's new asteroid-hunting telescope is made to protect Earth from disaster, Dwarf planet Quaoar has a ring instead of a moon, and scientists don't know why, 12 new moons discovered orbiting Jupiter, giving it the most in our solar system, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Bottom line: On November 19, 2022, a small asteroid hit Canada just hours after its discovery. Astronomers have a particularly . The NASA DART asteroid mission launches Nov. 24 and will crash into the moonlet of asteroid Didymos in 2022. . A "potentially hazardous"asteroid measuring more thana mile long will zoom past Earth this week, the largest asteroid expected toget relatively close to our planet in 2022. To protect the planet from cosmic dangers, early detection is key. March 13, 2022 An astronomer discovered an asteroid approximately 2 hours before it struck Earth's atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean on March 11, 2022. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. A cemetery posted a personal ad for a goose whose mate died. (ESA). Read |Two Asteroids, the size of an airplane, to fly by close to Earth on September 23. Heres What We Can All Learn, A Psychologist Reveals 4 Ways To Heal And Move On After A Breakup, Revolutionary New Radio Array Will Capture Unprecedented Images, Full Worm Moon 2023: Exactly When To See This Weeks Perfect Alignment Of The Sun And Moon, A Psychologist Offers Three Tips For Dealing With Extreme PMS. Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. Depending on the size of the space rock, an asteroid impact could be an. This was near Crown Point East in Hamilton, ON. According to EarthSky, the asteroid was about 20 times bigger than the one on Monday, with an estimated size of 65 feet and traveling at a speed of 12 miles a second when it hit the atmosphere.. You may opt-out by. Currently, NASA is tracking the course of several hundreds of asteroids that could potentially be hazardous to human life on Earth. The plan is to change its orbital velocity by 0.4 mm/s, which will in turn slightly alter the trajectory of Didymosnot because its dangerous to Earth, but because it could be a skill that NASA has to use one day to nudge a huge PHA like, possibly, Apophis. When she is not reading or writing about astronomy and staring up at the stars, she enjoys traveling to the national parks, creating crossword puzzles, running, tennis, and paddleboarding. With a global reach of over 10 million monthly readers and featuring dedicated websites for science (Phys.org), On 6 January 2022, astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona discovered an asteroid roughly 70-meters (230 ft) across. Really interesting to see from this angle. And the most recent event came almost exactly 10 years after a meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, 2013, setting off a shock wave that injured nearly 1,200 people and shattered windows in 3,600 apartment blocks. But that impact assessment changed after astronomers tracked Apophis and its orbit became better determined. Green like a bright emerald then bright orange really quickly. The collision could potentially decrease the moons 12-hour orbit by as much as seven minutes. Based on their initial observations, it appeared this object - called ' 2022 AE1 ' - could potentially hit Earth on its next pass, on 4 July 2023. According to NASA's CNEOS, asteroid 2022 PW has an estimated diameter that could be as wide as 51 meters. Asteroid:A huge asteroid that flew by Earth wasone of the closest approaches ever, NASA says, More:NASA's new asteroid-hunting telescope is made to protect Earth from disaster. Having said that, weve got bucketloads of time, he said, adding it might be possible to use multiple Dart-like impacts to shift the asteroids path a little at a time. Read |Asteroid 2020RN1 to fly by close to Earth on September 17, see details here. The most famous and destructive impact took place 65 million years ago when a 6-mile (10-km) diameter asteroid crashed into what is now the Yucatn Peninsula. Discovered in 2005, its reckoned to be about 1,100 feet/340 meters in diameter. pic.twitter.com/51F2YmtwBu, Richard Moissl (@Richard_M_F) November 19, 2022, Well, here's a BEAUTIFUL view of the bolide from the camera that looks up at the Tower pic.twitter.com/cxl1lrVeM8, Scott Sutherland, Science Writer (he/him) (@ScottWx_TWN) November 19, 2022. Several videos of the fireball were posted on Twitter. How big is the asteroid coming towards Earth in 2022? For reference, the asteroid is twice the size of theBurj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world. Science X Daily and the Weekly Email Newsletters are free features that allow you to receive your favourite sci-tech news updates. Ryan Taylor, a streets department employee, spotted it while finishing up a shift on Jan. 2. The asteroid, dubbed Sar2667, was first detected on the evening of Feb. 12 by astronomer Krisztin Srneczky in Hungary. In May 2022, NASA announced the approach of asteroid 1989 JA. In March 2022, he found an asteroid, now known as 2022 EB5, that was about 10 feet wide just two hours before it collided with Earth a little north of Iceland. map its entire surface before and after the Earth flyby. An asteroid wider than two football fields will zoom past Earth in the wee hours of Thursday (Aug. 4). In 2021, NASA's planetary defense budget was $158 million. It has since been confirmed that 2022 AE1 will not impact Earth any time in the foreseeable future. The agency noted this asteroid showed their systems can be highly accurate in projecting an object's likely impact location and would help planetary defense systems to be fully prepared. In October 2022, a half-mile-wide asteroid called Didymos will approach Earth. Congress recognized this threat, and in the 1998 Spaceguard Survey, it tasked NASA to find and track 90% of near-Earth objects 0.6 miles (1 km) across or bigger within 10 years. 2023 EarthSky lunar calendar. International Space Station forced to swerve to avoid US space junk, Nasa postpones spacewalk citing debris notification for ISS, Nasa to slam spacecraft into asteroid in mission to avoid future Armageddon, Rumbling meteor lights up Norway, prompting search for meteorites, Thegreatest threat to life on Earth may come from space. Ye Quanzhi, a University of Maryland astronomer who studies asteroids, comets and meteors, reported on Twitter at 1:13 a.m. EST on November 19: Looks like a space rock is going to fall into Lake Erie area in ~2 hours (about 3:30 am EST). Asteroid 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth object (NEO) estimated to be about 1,100 feet (340 meters) across. At this speed, the asteroid could travel around the planet Earth in 45 minutes," Marchis said. . Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. It will be published on April 19, 2022. Our descendants, if theyre still on Earth, will be able to sleep a little easier at night eight centuries from now, it seems. : Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day. Read on to find out about the killer asteroid which could potentially hit Earth. To find the answers to these questions, one has to know what near-Earth objects are out there. Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter:@jordan_mendoza5. There are only a handful with a higher impact probability than one-in-300, and all of these likely have a diameter of less than ten meters. But this event wasn't a complete surprise: Astronomers knew it was on a collision course, predicting exactly where and when the impact would happen. Past near-Earth encounters:Asteroid bigger than any building in the world fliespast Earth, False alarm:230-foot wide asteroid initially expected to hit Earth in 2023 was false alarm. The spacecraft arrived at Bennu, took pictures, collected samples and is due to return to Earth in 2023. It wiped out most plant and animal species on Earth, including the dinosaurs. NASA is keeping a close eye on a huge asteroid that's heading towards Earth. Cosmic bodies, like asteroids and comets, are constantly zooming through space and often crash into our planet. The spacecraft is . An extinction-level asteroid that could someday hit Earth was found hiding near Venus The area between Venus and Earth is difficult to observe because of the Sun's glare By Matthew Rozsa. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines). When the 164-foot (50-meter) asteroid passes by on March 11, 2023, there is roughly a 1 in 500,000 chance of . Astronomers say they have discovered the largest planet killer-sized asteroid in eight years, and that the huge space rock will cross Earths orbit. Even more worry-inducing was the following week, where no observations could be made because the full Moon blocked out any views of this asteroid from Earth. Brown said: We know from camera records and weather radar which tracked falling debris from the fireball that meteorites almost certainly made it to the ground near or east of Grimsby. Heres What We Can All Learn, A Psychologist Reveals 4 Ways To Heal And Move On After A Breakup, Revolutionary New Radio Array Will Capture Unprecedented Images, Full Worm Moon 2023: Exactly When To See This Weeks Perfect Alignment Of The Sun And Moon, A Psychologist Offers Three Tips For Dealing With Extreme PMS. [3] [8] The asteroid will also pass 0.16 AU (24 million km; 62 LD) from Mars on 9 May 2107. Luckily for Earth, the asteroid, named 2022 EB5, was around 6-feet-long, a size "too small to pose a hazard to Earth," NASA said in a statement . Officials said this was the seventh time an asteroid had been detected just before it hit Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL. In October 2022, about seven million miles from Earth, the refrigerator-size spacecraft will approach a half-mile-wide asteroid called Didymos, which is orbited by a 500-foot-wide moon.. Apollo 11: fly-tipping us all to the moon? The killer asteroid will be accompanied by its 500-foot-wide moon, which will be orbiting it. And this asteroid is being monitored by scientists. After a second observation was made minutes later, it was reported to the International Astronomical UnionMinor Planet Center. Here is what NASA says. "Came down vertically on time. In September, Nasa launched its Dart mission, ploughing a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to deflect the latter from its orbit. Despite the one in . Asteroid 2022 AE1 was flagged for a potential future impact by the Asteroid Orbit Determination (AstOD), an automated system astronomers around the world use to assess the asteroid risk. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided on Sept. 26 at about 22,530 kilometers per hour (14,000 miles per hour) into Dimorphos, an asteroid about 150 meters (490 feet) in diameter, roughly 11 million kilometers from Earth. One of the most recent instances also involved. There are literally hundreds of thousands of asteroids out there, and we want to separate out those we should keep a closer watch on and monitor over time.. "It was a thrill to track 2022 AE1 and refine its trajectory until we had enough data to say for certain, this asteroid will not strike.". Thats north of Lake Erie; west of Buffalo, New York; east of Detroit and southwest of Toronto. The asteroid is set to pass at 12:23 a.m. (ET). 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says, SpaceX capsule docks with space station, carrying replacement crew, SpaceX launches new crew to space station, NASA clears SpaceX Crew Dragon fliers for delayed launch to space station, SpaceX launches second-generation Starlink internet satellites. / CBS News. You can report the fireball with the American Meteor Society here. While the U.S. was busy celebrating the Super Bowl on Sunday night, Europeans had their own spectacle. On the official page of NASAs DART mission, Megan Bruck Syal from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory revealed that just before DART smashes into Didymoon at roughly 14,700 miles an hour, the NASA spacecraft will releasea shoebox-size cameraconcocted by the Italian Space Agency. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages. Learning more about what threatening asteroids are made of is also important, as their composition may affect how successful we are at deflecting them. NASA's plans to prevent a potential asteroid impact catastrophe explained. An asteroid that large could cause catastrophe on Earth, but there is no need to worry. Last month, researchers confirmed Dart had been a success. Asteroid 2020RN1 to fly by close to Earth on September 17, see details here, Dinosaur-killing asteroid started wildfires, triggered tsunamis: Study, Pakistan's court issues non-bailable arrest warrant against Imran Khan in Toshakhana case, Raaj Kumar Anand succeeds Manish Sisodia as Delhi Education Minister; see who got what, Who is Raaj Kumar Anand? NASA has been steadily finding and tracking near-Earth objects since the 1990s. While this asteroid snuck up on astronomers, there is no need to worry about a bigger, catastrophicasteroiddoing the same. Since any uncertainties in an asteroid's orbit are highest in the hours just after its discovery, astronomers at several different observatories scrambled to make follow-up observations which usually rule out any future impacts. The asteroid, named 2022 AP7, was reported by researchers looking for space rocks within the orbits of Earth and Venus. Micheli explained that a second observation is needed to reveal an object in motion, and at least three are needed to determine an orbit where it is going and how fast it is moving. The camera will witness the spacecrafts collision with the Didymoon. In October 2022, a half-mile-wide asteroid called Didymos will approach Earth. by Svetla Ben-Itzhak To date, NASA has tracked only an estimated 40% of the bigger ones. He told Space.com that he found the asteroid during a routine near-Earth object hunt using a 2-foot telescope. A new mission, funded by Congress in 2018, is scheduled to launch in 2026 an infrared, space-based telescopeNEO Surveyordedicated to searching for potentially dangerous asteroids. pic.twitter.com/vILyEVDZJi, Tony Dunn (@tony873004) November 19, 2022. I wouldnt say negligible, but fairly low.. A bigger impact could quite literally wipe out most species on Earth. The Earths surface would likely cool significantly from sunlight not getting to the planet. According to an Inverse report, the small bus-sized space rock will pass by Earth on January 6, 2022. The next asteroid of substantial size to potentially hit Earth is asteroid 2005 ED224. On March 11, astronomer Krisztian Sarneczky noticed an asteroid at the Piszkstet Observatory in Hungary. So, although the odds of any one particular asteroid ever impacting Earth are quite low, it is still likely that one day our planet will be hit by an asteroid or experience a large airburst event like the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013. The giant. It said: Bill Gray has the impact point at 19 Nov 2022 8:26:54.47 UTC, lat +43.12309, lon W80.26416, which is directly over Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The asteroid, named 1989 JA, is estimated to be 1.1 miles long, or 5,905 feet, according to NASA'sCenter for Near Earth Object Studies. The dashboard displays the date of closest approach, approximate object diameter, relative size and distance from Earth for each encounter. Fact Check: Will an asteroid really hit Earth on April 29, 2020? David Rankin discovered asteroid C8FF042, which the Minor Planet Center has since named WJ1. 2:59. It'll show up a few more times before 2029, but when it does, the people of Earth won't have anything to worry about. In fact, the NEOCC typically doesnt concern itself with listing asteroids with a risk of impacting Earth more than a century out, but it made an exception for 1950 DA and put it on its own special risk list. Given the huge size of Didymos and its moon, ground-based telescopes will be able to detect the asteroid very soon. And on Tuesday, the NEOCC conducted a new risk assessment based on all available data up until December 2021. A 1,200-pound . Researchers are asking locals to be on the lookout for meteorites. Apophis isnt going to strike our planet on April 13, 2029, but scientists think that the effect on it of the close pass could be to alter its trajectoryand dangerously so. As its name suggests, the asteroid was originally discovered in 1950 but then it wasnt spotted again for over half a century. Dart will smash into the "moonlet" Dimorphos at a speed of around 15,000mph (6.6 km/s). Earth. I cover science and innovation and products and policies they create. The livestream can be viewed here. Hence, the space agency has planned to take its asteroid shattering spacecraft, seven million miles from Earth. This may be a problem, as some surprise asteroids do not miss us. the Science X network is one of the largest online communities for science-minded people. Since its early days, NASA has been watching over and tracking the movement of Asteroids. [12] This was a stone four times the width of the Empire State Building and it flew by at a distance of 2.5-million-miles from Earth. A small asteroid hit Earth's atmosphere over the Norwegian Sea before disintegrating on March 11, 2022. We should probably expect a pretty spectacular light show, considering the low angle and high population of the area. Jay Tate, the director of the National Near Earth Objects Information Centre in mid Wales, told the Guardian he was not losing sleep over 2022 AP7, adding that the Earth was actually a very small target. According to NASA, this asteroid will make its . NASA doubts that, but given that Apophis just might cause a catastrophe in 40 years should we use the 2029 close shave to find out more about it? An asteroid impact has the potential to destroy life on an entire planet, hence asteroids have been an object of fear for humans. The object will have a very grazing impact of just 10-12 degrees or so, and should be travelling WSW To ENE between Detroit and Buffalo. DART launched in November 2021 and will arrive at Didymos and Dimorphos this September and during October will crash into Dimorphos at about 15,000 miles per hour. Peter Brown of Western University said: This fireball is particularly significant as the parent meteoroid was observed telescopically before it hit the atmosphere. An asteroid the size of a football fielddubbed the "City-killer"passed less than 45,000 miles from Earth in 2019. This movie captures the breakup of the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA's 1,200-pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft on September 26, 2022. It hit near Rouen, the capital of France's Normandy region. Another #imminent_impactor has been spotted ?Likely less than 1 metre in diameter, this will become a pretty and harmless fireball to observe. Phys.org is a leading web-based science, research and technology news service which covers a full range of topics. At the moment, anyway, the impact probability is fairly low. People on Twitter reported seeing the bright flash of light, along with the sound of atmospheric entry and even shaking, probably from the sonic boom. But this time, it entered Earths atmosphere over a populated area, crossing the skies of Toronto, Canada. This movie captures the breakup of the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA's 1,200-pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft on September 26, 2022. Please, allow us to send you push notifications with new Alerts. It smash a 500kg spacecraft into binary asteroid 65803 Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos (also called, rather cutely, Didymoon.. Your submission has been received! In 2008, astronomers spotted a small asteroid only 19 hours before it crashed into rural Sudan. ET), the asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere, turning into a "beautiful fireball" that streaked across the European skies. Refresh the. ESA has access to a global network of asteroid observing telescopes pillars. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided on September 26, 2022, at 22,530 kilometers per hour with Dimorphos, an asteroid about 150 meters in diameter, roughly 11 million . Even if no such body is expected to hit Earth in the next 100 years, the chance is not zero. Identify the news topics you want to see and prioritize an order. Phys.org is a part of Science X network. Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter:@jordan_mendoza5. Based on their initial observations, it appeared this object called '2022 AE1' could potentially hit Earth on its next pass, on 4 July 2023. While the finding of 2022 AP7 may bring to mind visions of the asteroid Armageddon depicted in the film Dont Look Up, the study also offers reassurance. NASAs New Moon Rocket Crackles 40 Million Times Greater Than A Bowl Of Rice Krispies, Say Scientists, A Psychologist Gives 3 Tips To Help You Design Your Perfect Work Cave, My TikTok On Friendship Breakups Went Viral. Impact should have been around Brantford, Ontario. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. This makes it a rare opportunity to link telescopic data of an asteroid with its breakup behavior in the atmosphere to glean insight into its internal structure. It has no chance to hit the Earth, currently, said Sheppard, noting that at present 2022 AP7 crosses the Earths orbit when the Earth is on the other side of the sun. We have been lucky so far. NASA surpassed the 90% goal in 2011. However, when scientists first discovered the asteroid 99942 Apophis almost 20 . And if you find any, contact the Royal Ontario Museum at naturalhistory@rom.on.ca. At 2:58 a.m. UT (9:58 p.m. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reported that as many as five . ESA said some keen observers will continue to monitor the asteroid, confirming the projections; we now know that in early July 2023, asteroid 2022 AE1 will fly by Earth at a distance of about ten million kilometers (+/- one million km) more than 20 times the distance of the Moon. Five dangerous asteroids are expected to pass near Earth this January, 2022, NASA said. The first involves regional first-aid and evacuation measures. A daily update by email. The space rock, called 7482 (1994 PC1), will not hit Earth . Illustration of an asteroid racing towards Earth, created on July 19, 2015. This is not the first time this year astronomers have discovered a rock from space just hours before it hit Earth. Back in March 2022, a small asteroid around half the size of a giraffe known as 2022 EB5 hit the Earth just hours after its discovery. Who Is Most Likely To Experience A Tornado In March? Thank you! For this exact same purpose, NASA has deployedmultiple Asteroid watching satellites. Your email address will only be used for EarthSky content. And the recent discovery of an asteroid 1.2 miles (2 km) in diameter suggests that there are still big objects lurking. The likelihood of experiencing an event that destroys your house is very small, yet people buy insurance nonetheless. According to experts from the B612 Foundation, home of the Asteroid Institute, 2022 AP7 is probably not going to hit Earth in this millennium, despite its close-ish orbit compared to Earth's. This would have been interesting to see, but at least I got to hear it. Surprise asteroids have visited Earth in the past and will undoubtedly do so in the future. Most of these are too small to pose a threat, but some can be cause for concern. The impact, at nearly seven kilometres a second,. For a little context, the ESA maintains a risk list of over 1,350 of the near earth objects with a chance of impacting our planet. Thats about as tall as the Empire State Building in Manhattan, New York. The. With a diameter of 1 to 2km, space rock named 2022 AP7 crosses our orbit but has no chance of hitting Earth. It is not expected to make its next close approach to Earth until May 6, 2022 The asteroid is not expected to hit the ground even if it does enter the Earth's atmosphere during its. The Conversation, The orbits of thousands of asteroids (in blue) cross paths with the orbits of planets (in white), including Earths. According to EarthSky, the asteroid was about 20 times bigger than the one on Monday, with an estimated size of 65 feet and traveling at a speed of 12 miles a second when it hit the atmosphere. However, Didymos will not be on NASA radar. The Earth has been hit by large asteroids in the past - which is why there are no enormous dinosaurs roaming the planet today. Thats the result of an updated threat analysis done by the European Space Agencys Near Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC) on the asteroid 1950 DA. Though 1989 JA won't strike Earth, NASA is preparing for the possibility that a catastrophic-sizedasteroid is on target to hit the planet.