Giant, Potentially Deadly Asteroid Spotted During Test-Run Of New Technology

 A “potentially hazardous” 600-foot asteroid was detected in July during the test run of a new algorithm designed to spot the deadliest rocks in space.

The algorithm was designed for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile and was essential to spotting the two-football-field-long asteroid, which last flew by Earth in Sept. 2022, according to a statement from the research team. The discovery was made during a test drive of the new technology at the ATLAS survey in Hawaii.

The asteroid was named 2022 SF289, and apparently poses no immediate threat to Earth. “By demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software that Rubin will use to look for thousands of yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids, the discovery of 2022 SF289 makes us all safer,” Rubin scientist Ari Heinze said of the situation.

 

Humans have had an ongoing issue with being able to detect asteroids as they get closer to us. Sure, we managed to identify some of them, but a shocking number of potentially devastating space rocks still whizz past us on a regular basis.

NASA regularly issues warnings about incoming asteroids, but very few of them come within a million or so miles of us.  

In 2013, a 20-meter sized undetected meteor exploded in our atmosphere above Russia, causing a shockwave that created $33 million in damages, and shattered tens of thousands of windows in the area.