(143649) 2003 QQ₄₇ - Early Reports

Early Reports

A NASA spokesman said,

"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, 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; 2003 QQ₄₇ is the fourth such case this year.

On September 2, 2003, new measurements of 2003 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."

(143649) 2003 QQ₄₇ has a diameter of approximately 1.24 km, and a mass of approximately 2.0×1012 kg. If it were to hit the Earth, it would be a major event, with an energy of approximately 350,000 megatons of TNT (1.5 ZJ), enough to cause global damage.

Dr. Sara Russell, a meteorite researcher at London's Natural History Museum, told the BBC that she was not worried that (143649) 2003 QQ₄₇ 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 (143649) 2003 QQ₄₇, 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.