NASA Discovers 10,000th Near-Earth Asteroid ‘2013 MZ5’

NASA astronomers have discovered more than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth. They claim to have found the 10,000^th near-Earth object, an asteroid dubbed 2013 MZ that was discovered on June 18, 2013.

The 10,000^th near -Earth asteroid 2013 MZ5 was detected by the PAN-STARRS-1 telescope that is located on the 10,000 foot (3,000-meter) summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui and is operated by the University of Hawaii.

The asteroid 2013 MZ5 that is approximately 1000 feet and 300 meters in diameter and will not pass anywhere close to the Earth to cause any damage.

Near-Earth objects (NEO) include asteroids and comets that come in the Earth's orbital distance within 28 million miles. They vary in size from a few feet to  25 miles. Till now the largest know NEO was asteroid 1036 Ganymed that is 41 km across.

According to Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, the discovery of the 10,000 NEO is a significant milestone. "And there are 10 times more than this to be found, " she adds

Of all the 10,000 discoveries made till date nearly 10 percent were large enough to cause potential damage on colliding with Earth. But based on NASA's NEOO program, none of the NEO's currently pose any threat to Earth. Majority of the NEOs are smaller than a kilometer. To cause any sort of damage to Earth a NEO would have to be 100 feet or larger. Only 1 percent of 100 foot sized NEO have been discovered.

"When I began surveying for asteroids and comets in 1992, a near-Earth object discovery was a rare event," Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center, said in a press release. "These days we average three NEO discoveries a day, and each month the Minor Planet Center receives hundreds of thousands of observations on asteroids, including those in the main-belt. The work done by the NASA surveys, and the other international professional and amateur astronomers, to discover and track NEOs is really remarkable." 

Currently the rate of discovery for NEOs is nearly 1,000 per year.