“This asteroid was a good demonstration of why we have these procedures, and of them working as expected: a higher than normal – but still very low – risk triggered further observations and planning, and these observations let us rule out an impact,” said Colin Snodgrass, a professor of planetary astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.
However, an impact with Earth could still have caused death and destruction: the asteroid was deemed capable of releasing energy equivalent to 7.8 megatonnes of TNT explosive.
The change was not unexpected: as the European Space Agency previously pointed out, an asteroid’s impact probability often rises before dropping off as additional observations are made.
“This shouldn’t be a cause for alarm – it is a sign that our technology is improving and we are doing better at discovering asteroids, and means that, if we do find one coming towards Earth, we have a better chance of finding it with enough warning time to do something about it.”.
“We should get used to alerts like this – as the new Vera Rubin Observatory starts scanning the skies later this year we will find many more asteroids, and some will no doubt require further attention to rule out impacts,” he said.
