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.
Video Shows Massive Fireball ‘The Size Of A Car’ Light Up The Southern Skies via @DailyCaller https://t.co/K11PUD3z0e
— Chris 🇺🇸 (@Chris_1791) July 17, 2023
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. (RELATED: If The Largest Asteroid Near Earth Hit Us, Here’s What It Would Look Like)
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.