Earth-threatening “asteroid” a case of mistaken identity
April 5th 2008 02:59
Late last year an object perhaps an “asteroid” was detected heading for Earth. The object named 2007VN84 would approach very close to Earth.
The “object” was detected by astronomers in Arizona scanning the skies for Earth-threatening objects. They referred their calculations to the Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts. The following day the M.P.C announced that the “newly found object” was on a close trajectory with Earth the object was given a name of 2007VN84.
It was some days later that a Russian astronomer named Denis Denisenko was the first to point out that 2007 VN84 trajectory was very similar to the Rosetta spacecraft and in fact the spacecraft was mistaken for an asteroid.
The Rosetta spacecraft was on a routine course to Earth in order to gravity assist the spacecraft to it’s next destination to photograph comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The spacecraft includes a lander that will touch down on the surface of the comet. An Editorial Notice was later issued to declare that ‘The minor planet 2007 VN84 does not exist and the designation is to be retired.
Despite a few red faces the system works, it did detect an object heading for Earth. The incident did show a few problems with the availability of positional information on distant artificial objects and a lack of a centralised database makes checking incoming objects against known space probes difficult.
Images courtesy of the European Space Agency
The “object” was detected by astronomers in Arizona scanning the skies for Earth-threatening objects. They referred their calculations to the Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts. The following day the M.P.C announced that the “newly found object” was on a close trajectory with Earth the object was given a name of 2007VN84.
The Rosetta spacecraft on its fueling stand.
The Rosetta spacecraft was on a routine course to Earth in order to gravity assist the spacecraft to it’s next destination to photograph comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The spacecraft includes a lander that will touch down on the surface of the comet. An Editorial Notice was later issued to declare that ‘The minor planet 2007 VN84 does not exist and the designation is to be retired.
Rosetta Earth Fly-by
Despite a few red faces the system works, it did detect an object heading for Earth. The incident did show a few problems with the availability of positional information on distant artificial objects and a lack of a centralised database makes checking incoming objects against known space probes difficult.
Images courtesy of the European Space Agency
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