Ecliptic projection of the orbit of asteroid 2006 QV89. Credit: ESA / NEOCC

One month ago, NEOCC team ruled out the possibility that asteroid 2006 QV89 would impact the Earth this September by making a “non-detection”, i.e. observing the area of the sky where the asteroid would appear if it were on a collision course with our planet - and not detecting it.

New observations taken on 10-11 August with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) by Dr. D. Tholen of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy retrieved the actual position of the asteroid, ruling out any potential future impact threat to the Earth by this asteroid for the next century. Dr. M. Micheli from NEOCC participated to the recovery of 2006 QV89 using the Calar Alto Schmidt telescope to obtain confirmatory observations.

The press release from CFHT can be found here: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2019/08/12/cfht-near-earth-asteroid/