A faint streak of light recorded in 1955 has calmed fears about a
catastrophic asteroid impact. After learning of the possible threat to Earth
posed by asteroid 1999 AN10
(This Week, 5 June, p 5), two German amateur
astronomers, Arno Gnädig and Andreas Doppler, calculated where it should
have been during the 1955 Palomar sky survey. They then spotted it on a
digitised image. From this information, Gareth Williams and Brian Marsden of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, refined
their calculations of the asteroid’s orbit. “We’re safe until sometime after
2076,” says Marsden.
More from New ÒÁÈ˾þÃ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending New ÒÁÈ˾þà articles
1
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
2
Mystery of the ancient giant stone jars of Laos may have been solved
3
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
4
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
5
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
6
We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
7
The 3 things you need to know about protein, according to an expert
8
We could generate hydrogen from rocks while storing CO2 in them
9
How worried should you be about microplastics?
10
CAR T-cell therapy bolstered by stiffening up cancer cells first
