Asteroids Passed Close To Earth

Two hefty asteroids passed close to Earth on January 16, but none were dinosaur-killers, scientists who tracked them said.

These close-approaching asteroids measured one kilometer and three kilometers in diameter respectively, big enough to cause catastrophe if they collided with Earth.

But asteroid 7341 1991 VK got no closer than 11 million kilometers, nearly 24 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The other asteroid, 2002 AO11, came much nearer -- about 5 million kilometers.

Both were considered near-Earth objects (NEOs) but not necessarily potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).One of the duties of NASA's Near Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California is to calculate the orbits of NEOs and PHAs..

© 2002 - Khorsheed.com - Feb 2002