(Newswire.net — January 8, 2017) —The object named 2016 VF9 was observed on November 27th last year during NEOWISE, a NASA’s asteroid- and comet-hunting project.
During its original mission, NEOWISE discovered more than 34,000 asteroids. It was brought out of hibernation in December 2013 to detect comets and asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.
The newly discovered object is roughly 0.3 to 0.6 miles across and is in an orbit that takes it on a scenic tour of our solar system.
At its farthest distance from the sun, it approaches Jupiter’s orbit. Over the course of 4.9 Earth years, it travels inward, passing under the main asteroid belt and the orbit of Mars until it swings just inside Earth’s own orbit. After that, it heads back toward the outer solar system, the UK Mirror reports.
The British magazine added that the American space agency has spotted two objects and “has pinpointed one as a comet, the other has left it slightly more baffled”.
Deputy Principal Investigator from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, James “Gerbs” Bauer, said that it is not known whether the object could be a comet, as the line between comets and asteroids is very vague. According to the general rule, asteroids are rocky or have more metal while comets could contain ice.
Object 2016 VF9 is dark and without any reflection which is a characteristic of comets, however there is no dust nor a gas cloud which comets typically have.
James Bauer explained that it is possible that over time, the 2016 VF9 object “lost the majority of the volatiles that linger on or just under its surface”.
Scientists believe that the mysterious object will be closest to Earth on February 25th, at a distance of nearly 32 million miles.
But, there is no reason to be afraid, NASA stated that the 2016 VF9 object is ”not a threat to Earth for the foreseeable future”.