New astronomical observations have completely ruled out the possibility of a devastating collision between asteroid 2002 NT7 and the Earth in 2019, the US space agency NASA said yesterday.
But NASA's Near-Earth Objects (NEO) office said there remained a remote chance that the two kilometre-wide space rock could crash into our planet in 2060.
Astronomers initially spotted the asteroid on July 5th through the Linear Observatory's automated sky survey programme in New Mexico and initial calculations showed it was due to hit our planet on February 1st, 2019.
In a statement published on its website, the NEO said: "With the processing of a few more observations of asteroid 2002 NT7 through July 28th, we can now rule out any Earth impact possibilities for February 1st, 2019.
"While we cannot yet completely rule out an impact possibility on February 1st, 2060, it seems very likely that this possibility will soon be ruled out as soon as additional positional observations are processed."
Astronomers across the world are continuing to keep a close eye on the asteroid, which circles the sun every 837 days and travels in a tilted orbit from about the distance of Mars to just within the Earth's orbit.
In a collision between 2002 NT7 and the Earth the asteroid would enter the atmosphere at nearly 64,000 mph, causing widespread devastation.
Last month, an asteroid the size of a soccer field missed the Earth by 75,000 miles in one of the closest known encounters with an object that size.
- (PA)