The issue focused on two objects in space: an asteroid that had come close to Earth in 2005 and an asteroid that had passed within 16,000 miles (26,000 kilometers) of Earth in October 2012. This article featured data from NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program (NEOWISE), which tracks asteroids and comets with ground-based telescopes.


NEOWISE uses two telescopes to gather data on asteroid sizes and orbits. On Oct. 25, 2012, NEOWISE detected an asteroid about