* Astronomy

Asteroid (35396) 1997 XF11 is a near-Earth and Mars-crosser asteroid which, shortly after its discovery on December 6, 1997, by James V. Scotti of the University of Arizona's Spacewatch Project, was predicted to make an exceptionally close approach to Earth in October 2028.
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IMAGE

1998 October 28
Much of the public, as well as many astronomers, rather missed the point about the 1997 XF11 announcement, which was that an intriguing situation had been virtually ignored. There was a need for further observations, and it was because the Minor Planet Centre specifically provided an ephemeris for 1990 on its web page that the 1990 images that solved the problem of the 2028 approach to the Earth were quickly found. Surely, that is science working at its best. Furthermore, even with a miss distance of almost 1 million km in October 2028, the approach will be the closest known for any asteroid or comet estimated to be as large as 2km across.
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Original prediction table shows the closest Earth approach distances for the
near-Earth asteroid 1997 XF11 from 1990-Mar to 2029-Feb. 

 Date of Close     Approach Distance
 Earth Approach     (AU)     (km)
-----------------  -----------------
1990-Jul-05 19:16  0.244  36,480,000
1997-May-08 21:59  0.156  23,270,000
2002-Oct-31 00:33  0.064   9,510,000
2009-Aug-27 14:21  0.262  39,170,000
2016-Jun-10 15:30  0.180  26,910,000
2021-Nov-18 23:24  0.443  66,340,000
2023-May-05 07:26  0.242  36,190,000
2028-Oct-26 06:26  0.006     954,000

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