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In general, when an asteroid is found to have even a tiny chance of impacting Earth, further observations and measurements are taken. These "astrometric" data refine our understanding of the asteroid's path, improving our understanding of the risk it poses and often excluding any chance of collision altogether. However, the case of asteroid 2006 QV89 is peculiar. The object was discovered in August 2006 and then observed for only ten days. These observations suggested it had a 1-in-7000 chance of impacting Earth on 9 September 2019. After the tenth day, the asteroid was unobservable and has not been seen since....

You may have seen reports that a massive asteroid the size of a football field is hurtling toward Earth. Although the European Space Agency (ESA) has placed asteroid 2006QV89 on its Risk List, there's no reason to sound the alarms just yet. First of all, it's probably not as big as you think it is. The object is roughly 40 meters in diameter, according to the ESA. A football field is 48.5 meters wide and 109 meters long. The Risk List might sound scary, but that simply means that ESA calculated a non-zero impact probability. ESA says this particular asteroid...