Reuters/Miami

A newly-discovered asteroid made a “close” approach to Earth this week - at least in astronomical terms - and it is likely to come back around in 2032, but there is only a miniscule risk of it smashing into the planet, Nasa said yesterday.

The asteroid known as 2013 TV135 came within 6.7mn km (4.2mn miles) of Earth on Wednesday, the US space agency said.

It was discovered on October 8 by astronomers at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. Astronomers have only a week’s worth of observations to go on, but believe its orbit will bring it back to Earth’s neighbourhood in 2032.

The probability of the asteroid hitting Earth is only one in 63,000, they calculated.

“To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998%,” said Don Yeomans, manager of Nasa’s Near-Earth Object Programme Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Ukrainian astronomers calculated the date of a potential collision as August 26, 2032, the Russian news service RIA Novosti said.

The force of such a possible collision could be the equivalent of setting off about 2.5 megatons of TNT, RIA Novosti reported.

On Wednesday, divers working in Chebarkul Lake in Russia’s Ural Mountains had raised what could be a large piece of the meteor that exploded over the region in February.

That strike from space caused some damage and injuries to hundreds of people, mainly from shattered window glass.

With additional observations in the coming months, scientists may be able to better calculate the asteroid’s orbit and reduce their estimate of the risk or rule out any risk entirely, Nasa said.

The asteroid is estimated to be 400 metres (1,300 feet) in size and its orbit is believed to carry it as far out as about three-quarters of the distance to Jupiter’s orbit and as close to the sun as Earth’s orbit, Nasa said.

The Near-Earth Object Observations Programme, known as “Spaceguard,” detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth to determine if any could pose harm. The newly discovered asteroid is one of 10,332 near-Earth objects identified so far.