"I was aware of the four observations immediately because the Minor Planet Center wanted my opinion on whether an impact was possible," says astronomer Steve Chesley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who calculated FU162's close approach. "I've been working on the object ever since with new techniques that I developed."
Chesley took the four observations and computed an orbit for the object — or actually two orbits, one for before the space rock's Earth encounter and one for after. Before flying past Earth, FU162 had a year-long orbit that straddled Earth's path about evenly. During the flyby, Earth's gravity bent the rock's trajectory. "It deflected it by about 20°," Chesley told Astronomy. "The asteroid's period dropped from about one year to about 9 months." Its new orbit lies closer to the Sun than the older one.
Only 15 to 30 feet (5 to 10 meters) in diameter, 2004 FU162 produced the closest miss of any asteroid known. If it had struck Earth, its size was small enough to make it disintegrate high in the atmosphere. Says Chesley, "It would have produced a nice fireworks show." He continues: "Objects this size hit Earth every several years."
The previous close-approach record holder was 2004 FH, which flew past Earth at a distance of 27,000 miles (43,000 km) on March 18, 2004. It had a diameter estimated at about 100 feet (30m). That object would have made a larger explosion, but it too would have broken up in the atmosphere if it had struck
I'm not sure whether you guys know but this is scary
I think we have a greater threat from out there than Terrorism
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