NASA tracks a new asteroid that has a "small chance" colliding with Earth on Valentine’s Day 2046

() — NASA’s Office of Planetary Defense is tracking a new asteroid that has “a very small chance of hitting Earth” 23 years from now, on Valentine’s Day 2046.

The asteroid, named “2023 DW,” is 50 meters in diameter, about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, and has a 1 in 625 chance of hitting Earth, according to the European Space Agency.

Although the space rock currently tops NASA’s risk list, it only has a score of 1 out of 10 on the Torino scalewhich means that “the probability of collision is extremely unlikely, without cause for public attention or concern.”

As astronomers learn more about this asteroid, concerns around it could be reduced significantly.

NASA’s Office of Planetary Defense explains that “often when new objects are first discovered, several weeks of data are needed to reduce uncertainties and adequately predict their orbits in future years.”