A threatening space rock hovering near the top of the lists of potentially Earth-popping asteroids has been officially delisted. We no longer need to fear this rock, which was originally thought to potentially hit Earth in 2052.
The 50-metre-wide asteroid, designated 2021 QM1, was first discovered by the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona in August 2021. In a dark sky, a good observatory could find a dozen or so near-Earth objects in one night, so there was nothing abnormal in this case, the European Space Agency (ESA) noted.
But routine follow-ups looked less positive. “These early observations gave us more information about the asteroid’s trajectory and we made future predictions,” ESA’s Planetary Defense Director Richard Moissl said in a statement. “We could see its future paths around the Sun and it could come dangerously close to Earth in 2052 “The more the asteroid was observed, the greater the risk seemed to be.”
As this information was starting to look alarming, the asteroid’s path brought it closer to the Sun as it appeared from Earth. So the glare of our star eclipsed everything around it, making it impossible to continue watching the space rock. “We also had to wait,” said Marco Micheli of ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC). It could have been too weak for us to detect when it came out.”
Fortunately, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) was ready for the search as soon as the asteroid became visible again. It wasn’t easy to spot though.
Images of the asteroid on May 24 enabled them to determine that it would not have an impact in 2052. Thus, the asteroid was removed from the high risk list.
Although this is good news, let’s say that there are 1,377 more risky celestial bodies behind…
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