Andromeda

You will see the latest Daily Update has "new" observations for 2004 VD17, the asteroid previously scheduled to (possibly) hit Earth on May 4, 2102. The new observations are actually old -- from two years before 2004 VD17 was discovered. Somebody at Mount Palomar was digging through some old photos. ("And this one is my mom and dad at Hoover Dam -- hey, hold on a second, what's that asteroid doing back there?") By adding these three newly discovered February 16, 2002 observations to the hundreds from 2004 to 2006, the calculated orbit completely changes.

Close-approach results:

        Date (CT)       Body   CA Dist  MinDist  MaxDist   Vrel  TCA3Sg  Nsigs  P_i/p
----------------------  -----  -------  -------  -------  ------ ------ ------ -------
A.D. 2004 Nov 02.23669  Earth  .089506  .089505  .089506  15.549   0.05 5.90E5 .000000
A.D. 2032 May 01.93478  Earth  .021131  .021033  .021230  18.859   7.96 22961. .000000
A.D. 2041 Nov 07.65027  Earth  .012405  .011943  .012867  17.863  36.85 61563. .000000
A.D. 2067 May 04.88905  Earth  .018354  .001934  .035250  17.700 1390.6 14697. .000000
A.D. 2076 Nov 04.03585  Earth  .071671  .003518  .188363  16.094 9108.9 88649. .000000
A.D. 2111 Nov 09.62088  Earth  .013059  .004200  .400893  17.870 19837. 1.07E5 .000000

These are the new calculations from JPL. (Impact risk calculations have not been updated yet.) No close approach in 2102 at all, and all showing zero probability of impact. How sure are we 2004 VD17 was what the Palomar folks found on their old photos? Good question.

But an even better question is: Why was this information hidden from us until now -- and what else are they hiding?