NASA tracks asteroid with small chance hitting Earth in 2046

LOS ANGELES - NASA has been tracking a new asteroid named 2023 DW that has a "very small chance" of impacting Earth in 2046.

"Often when new objects are first discovered, it takes several weeks of data to reduce the uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits years into the future," NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office tweeted.

Orbit analysts will continue to monitor asteroid 2023 DW and update predictions as more data comes in, according to NASA.

Asteroid 2023 DW was first detected on Feb 27, 2023, and is estimated to measure approximately 50 meters in diameter.

NASA has been working on developing techniques to protect Earth against an asteroid impact in the future. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission successfully impacted its target asteroid, Dimorphos, on Sept 26 last year, which altered the orbit of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos by 33 minutes.