| Description: | Designated 2007 WD5, the asteroid was discovered on Nov. 20, 2007 by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey using a 1.5m telescope on Mt. Lemmon, near Tucson. The object had already passed within 7.5 million km (5 million miles) of the Earth on Nov. 1, before it was discovered. Based on its magnitude, JPL estimated the asteroid to be about 50 meters (160 feet) across. When it closes in on Mars, it will approach from the day side, and will then be very difficult to observe from any of the spacecraft on or around Mars. The current best estimate predicts the asteroid will miss Mars by 50,000 km, but the miss distance is highly uncertain because the asteroid's path is not known with sufficient accuracy. Please see Ulrich's 2007wd5_info.txt file for installation instructions. |
