Massive asteroid not a threat to earth: NASA

5 Dariya News

New York 10-Dec-2014

A massive asteroid discovered by Russian researchers is not a threat to the Earth, NASA has confirmed.According to media reports, a Russian researcher discovered a 400-metre space rock named Asteroid 2014 UR116 coming towards the Earth."Some press reports have suggested that an asteroid designated 2014 UR116, found on Oct 27, 2014, at the MASTER-II observatory in Kislovodsk, Russia, represents an impact threat to the Earth," officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said in a statement."It, however, does not represent a threat because its orbital path does not pass sufficiently close to the Earth's orbit," the NASA statement added.The calculations from NASA found that the asteroid 2014 UR116 does not pose a danger to the Earth for at least next 150 years, Space.com reported.NASA is also planning to launch a robotic mission to redirect an asteroid into orbit around the Moon so that astronauts can explore it.