Stay on target
Good news: Asteroid 2006 QV89 is not on a collision course for Earth this year.
Even better news: The chance of future impact is “extremely remote,” according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
The small object—about 65 to 165 feet in diameter—made headlines recently based on a very small chance of contact this September.
Now, in the first known case of using “non-detection” to rule out the horror of a minor planet crashing into Earth, ESA and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) confirmed we are not in danger.
At least not from asteroid 2006 QV89.
“In general, when an asteroid is found to have even a tiny chance of impacting Earth, further observations and measurements are taken,” an ESA blog post explained.
But this case is “peculiar.”
Discovered in August 2006, the object was observed for only 10 days, leading scientists to conclude that it had a 1-in-7,000 chance of impacting Earth on Sept. 9, 2019.
“After the tenth day, the asteroid was unobservable and has not been seen since,” the agency continued. “Now, after more than a decade, we can predict its position with only very poor accuracy.”
Don’t start ringing the bells of the apocalypse, though.
While astronomers don’t know 2006 QV89’s exact trajectory, they do know where it would appear in the sky if it were on a collision course with our planet.
“Therefore, we can simply observe this small area of the sky to check that the asteroid is indeed, hopefully, not there,” the ESA said.
Which is precisely what the ESO and ESA did.
As folks in the US ate hot dogs, watched fireworks, and enjoyed a long weekend, analysts in Europe searched the heavens: Teams obtained “deep” images of an area of sky—where the asteroid would be if it were on track to impact Earth later this year.
Luckily, they didn’t spot anything.
“Even if the asteroid were smaller than expected, at only a few meters across, it would have been seen in the image,” according to the ESA. “Any smaller than this and the VLT could not have spotted it, but it would also be considered harmless as any asteroid this size would burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.”
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