[nitzy]

That would be like saying that if you are standing in an empty parking lot, a car is going to drive past you at 100mph. The car will pass by anywhere from 6 feet away from you to 1 mile away from you.

How could the measurements be so imprecise that the range is 8,989,000 miles, but they do know for sure that it will be at least 11,000 away from us?

[Eisenhower Republican]

How could the measurements be so imprecise that the range is 8,989,000 miles, but they do know for sure that it will be at least 11,000 away from us?

Space is a big place,. I wonder how they would know the mass of TX68 past 2 or 3 significant figures.

I think what they're trying to say is that there is a 95% probability that it will be within that interval. It doesn't completely rule out the chances of a hit, but it's not likely.