Washington: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reportedly revealed that the chances of the 1,300-foot-wide asteroid impacting Earth have increased following ongoing investigations.
Earlier the space agency had estimated a chance of 1 in 63,000 of the asteroid hitting Earth, and astronomers had speculated the risk to reduce even further.
However, instead of the expected reduction, the NASA`s Near-Earth Object Program has increased the likelihood that the asteroid will strike Earth is closer to 1 in 9,090, CBS News reports.
On October 8, a team of Ukrainian astronomers had discovered the asteroid expected to pass close to Earth in August 2032.
According to the report, the asteroid 2013 TV135 is one of the two asteroids that currently rank a 1 on the Torino Scale, which measures asteroid impact hazards.
Despite the upgraded risk, NASA remains 99.989 percent certain that asteroid 2013 TV135 will complete a safe flyby, compared to the original 99.992 percent certainty.
Don Yeomans of the NASA program had earlier said that the risk will likely decrease as even more observations come in, because calculating the path of an asteroid 19 years out is not exactly cut and dry.
As astronomers investigate further, the area where the asteroid will potentially be will decrease and if the area still overlaps with Earth`s orbit, the likelihood of impact will increase, because it is a smaller ratio within the space.
The report said that if at all the asteroid collides with Earth it will strike with the force of 2,500 megatons of TNT, making it 50 times more powerful that the largest nuclear bomb that has ever been set off.
