Andromeda

The end of the world! A new top Palermo Scale Near-Earth Object, 2006 BQ6, has just shown up on the JPL Risk page at a Palermo Scale rating of 1.12 (max). The Torino Scale is still 0 because the potential for impact is only 6.2e-06, a couple of orders of magnitude less than Apophis (but 2006 BQ6 weighs in slightly heftier at a diameter of .413 km). Only 42 observations over about 4 days, so the usual pattern is for this to drop off the bottom of the chart after a couple of days. But otherwise it's hitting the Earth on July 31, 2006.

But how do the Italians calculate it? Palermo Scale for the same 42 observations, for the same date, July 31, 2006 is 1.74. Well, that's not as exciting as 1.12, but, hey, it's respectable.