2014 asteroid won't hit Earth?

Are you referring to the recent news that asteroid 2003 was predicted to hit earth in the year 2014? I don't find any info on a 2014 asteroid in the recent news.

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Asteroid 2003 QQ47's Potential Earth Impact in 2014 Ruled Out
Paul W. Chodas and Steven R. Chesley
NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office
September 3, 2003
Newly discovered asteroid 2003 QQ47 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, 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. 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; 2003 QQ47 is the fourth such case this year.

As astronomers continue to monitor an asteroid and measure its position, more precise predictions can be made. On September 2, new measurements of QQ47'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. In our Impact Risk Page for 2003 QQ47, the entry for the year 2014 has now disappeared, although a number of potential impact events remain for later years. We expect that these too will be ruled out in the coming days as astronomers continue to track the object and we refine our orbit predictions.

These seemingly large day-to-day changes in impact predictions for newly discovered asteroids are just what we expect. In the few days after an asteroid is first discovered, its orbit is known only very approximately. The range of possible positions in future years is wide and can easily encompass the Earth, but as the object continues to be tracked, the range of possibilities shrinks quickly, allowing us to rule out any possibility of impact. This process is ongoing for 2003 QQ47, and could take days or even weeks before all potential impacts are ruled out.


Ron Baalke, Near-Earth Object Webmaster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, California


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There's lots of them out there...


NASA JPL Sentry System NEO Impact Risk Assessment

Thank you for the info. The days, possibly weeks mentioned in the article have elapsed, and still no news. I don't think they will ever tell us by how much a potential killer asteroid will miss by, nor what the margin of error is. Perhaps they will lie and say we are safe even if they are all but sure we will be dead. Neil

Well, it's a small target and a smaller bullet, so it sounds like a safe guess. If it misses, they can claim foresite. If it hits, who will be around to catch the mistake? Now, if they were required to call their shots, some reputations would be on the line. I think Neil's right. They aren't going to refine the guess till much later, if at all