is an asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 which became briefly notable upon its discovery in late August 2003 when media outlets played up a preliminary report that it had a 1:250,000 chance of colliding with Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 on March 21, 2014.

It was added to the Sentry Risk Table

Sentry (monitoring system)

Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalog for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 years...

 on 30 August 2003. It was removed from the Sentry Risk Table on 14 September 2003.

It is now known that will safely pass 0.1283 AU from the Earth on 2014-Mar-26.

Early reports

A NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 spokesman said,

"Newly discovered asteroid has received considerable media attention over the last few days because it had a small chance of colliding with the Earth in the year 2014 and was rated a "1" on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale

Torino Scale

The Torino Scale is a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets.It is intended as a communication tool for astronomers and the public to assess the seriousness of collision predictions, by combining probability statistics and known...

, which goes from 0 to 10. The odds of collision in 2014, as estimated by JPL's Sentry impact monitoring system, peaked at 1 chance in 250,000, a result which was posted on our Impact Risk Page on Saturday, August 30, 2003. Impact events at the Torino Scale 1 level certainly merit careful monitoring by astronomers, but these events do not warrant public concern. In fact, each year several newly discovered asteroids reach Torino Scale 1 for a brief period after discovery; is the fourth such case this year.

On September 2, 2003, new measurements of 's position allowed us to narrow our prediction of its path in 2014, and thus we could rule out any Earth impact possibilities for 2014."

has a diameter of approximately 1.24 km, and a mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 of approximately 2.0×10¹² kg. If it were to hit the Earth, it would be a major event

Extinction event

An extinction event is a sharp decrease in the diversity and abundance of macroscopic life. They occur when the rate of extinction increases with respect to the rate of speciation...

, with an energy of approximately 350,000 megatons

TNT equivalent

TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...

 of TNT (1.5 Z

Zetta

Zetta- is a prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 1021 or .Added to the SI in 1991, it is evocative of the French numeral sept, meaning seven, because it is equal to 10007....

J

Joule

The joule ; symbol J) is a derived unit of energy or work in the International System of Units. It is equal to the energy expended in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre , or in passing an electric current of one ampere through a resistance of one ohm for one second...

), enough to cause global damage.

Dr. Sara Russell, a meteorite

Meteorite

A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...

 researcher at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...

, told the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

that she was not worried that would be a danger.

"The odds are very, very low... We have to keep some kind of perspective," she said.

As a result of the press coverage of asteroids such as , astronomers are now planning to re-word the Torino scale, or to phase it out completely in favour of a scale which is less likely to generate false alarms which may reduce public confidence in genuine alerts.

External links

• Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Horizons Ephemeris