NASA to track asteroid close approach in January

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) — NASA will track Asteroid 2025 PT5 on its next close pass by Earth in January 2025, the agency said on Wednesday.
NASA plans to use its Goldstone Solar System Radar to track the asteroid during its next close approach, which will be five times as far from Earth as the moon. The asteroid will then leave the vicinity of Earth as it continues its orbit around the sun, according to NASA.
Estimated to be about 10 meters wide, the asteroid does not pose a hazard to Earth, said NASA.
The small near-Earth asteroid 2024 PT5 was first observed on Aug. 7, 2024, by the Sutherland, South Africa telescope of the University of Hawai’i’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.
NASA scientists suspect that the object could be a large chunk of rock ejected from the moon’s surface after an asteroid impact long ago. ■