Regarding asteroid 2021 QM1, the researchers say, “The more asteroids seen, the greater the risk.” But now everything is clear.

Paris – more than ten near-Earths every night asteroids searched for. Each of them will then continue to be observed and their trajectories calculated to rule out any threats to Earth. But on August 28, 2021, the automated telescope system at Mount Lemmon Observatory in the US state of Arizona discovered an asteroid that researchers could not rule out impacting Earth. Quite the contrary: “We could see its future orbit around the Sun, and in the year 2052 it could come dangerously close to Earth,” explains Richard Moisel, head of ESA’s “Planetary Defense” department. in a message, “The more asteroids seen, the greater the risk.”

Asteroid 2021 QM1 has been included in the European Space Agency’s Esa risk list. According to Essa, it was considered “the most dangerous asteroid known to mankind in the past year”. But now researchers have been able to rule out asteroid impacts for the next hundred years. Getting there turned out to be a Sisyphean task. Because the asteroid’s impact risk increased as calculated, so did its orbit bringing the asteroid closer to the Sun – for months it was not visible due to the Sun’s glare.

Asteroid 2021 QM1: Esa denies impact on Earth

“We just had to wait,” recalls ESA astronomer Marco Micheli. “We knew that 2021 QM1 is moving away from Earth in its current orbit, meaning it can be detected once it has left the Sun’s glare.” Still, the researchers prepared for the moment the asteroid should emerge from sunlight. The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) should look for the 50-metre-wide asteroid.

“We had a short time window to discover our high-risk asteroid,” explains ESO astronomer Olivier Hainaut. But there was a new problem: The asteroid was now passing through a region of the sky where it was difficult to see because the Milky Way was behind the Milky Way. “These are some of the most difficult asteroid observations we’ve ever made,” emphasizes Hainaut.

1377 Dangerous Asteroids Still on the Risk List

But on May 24, the telescope was able to take a picture of the asteroid, and astronomers were able to get to work and calculate its orbit more accurately. Ultimately, ESA can now rule out effect in 2052 and was for the next 100 years, from 2021 QM1 asteroid risk list far, Like the infamous asteroid Apophis some time ago, 1378 other asteroids still on the list, Many Near-Earth Asteroids Not Yet Discovered, experts estimate. (tab)