2007 VN84

2007 VN₈₄ was a short-lived provisional designation given to the European Rosetta spacecraft when it was mistaken for a dangerous asteroid in November, 2007. An astronomer 'discovered' the spacecraft and misidentified it as an asteroid about 20 meters in diameter, and performed a trajectory calculation showed that it would make its closest flyby of the Earth at a distance of 5700 kilometers on November 13, 2007. This extremely close approach (in astronomical terms) led to speculation that 2007 VN₈₄ might be at risk of impacting the Earth. [ [http://news.skymania.com/2007/11/deadly-asteroid-is-spaceprobe.html Skymania News | Space headlines: 'Deadly asteroid' is a spaceprobe ] ] However, astronomer Denis Denisenko recognized that the trajectory matched that of the Rosetta probe, which was performing a flyby of Earth en route to its rendezvous with a comet. [ [http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001227/ That's no near-Earth object, it's a spaceship! - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society ] ] The Minor Planet Center later confirmed in an editorial release [ [http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K07/K07V70.html MPEC 2007-V70 : EDITORIAL NOTICE ] ] that 2007 VN₈₄ was actually the spacecraft.

See also

* Near-Earth object

External links

* [http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/071112-technov-asteroid-mistake.html Near-Miss Asteroid Found to be Artificial (Space.com)]

References