Asteroid Orbit Determination News Today

Earlier this year, the discovery of a potentially hazardous asteroid took astronomers on a roller coaster ride.

It’s dangerous to say in a headline that an asteroid is heading towards Earth because asteroid trackers define ‘potentially hazardous objects’ (PHO) as an asteroid or a comet large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact – but 99% of them won’t get close for at least 100 years and ‘close’

The asteroid was moving so fast that there was not enough time to attempt deflection and the European Space Agency (ESA) said that worryingly, the chance of impact appeared to increase.