2004 VD17

Nasa Impact risk Here

2004 VD17 (also written 2004 VD17) is a near-Earth asteroid with a low but non-zero probability of impacting Earth in 2102. As of March 2006 it is listed with a Torino Scale impact risk value of 2, only the second asteroid in risk monitoring history to be rated above value 1.

Current estimates give the asteroid about a 1 in 1,300 chance that it will collide with Earth on May 4, 2102. If that happens, the energy released by the impact would be an estimated 15,000 megatons of TNT, and result in at least regional scale devastation.

2004 VD17 was discovered on November 7, 2004 by the NASA-funded LINEAR asteroid survey. The object is estimated at 500-1,200 metres in diameter.

It was last observed on March 10, 2006, and its Palermo Scale rating is currently -0.24. Further observations in the coming months will improve the orbit estimate and may determine whether the asteroid is on impact course with Earth or not.

2004 VD17 has since November 22, 2004 been topping the Earth impact hazard list, only supplanted for a few days in late December 2004 by 99942 Apophis (then known only by its provisional designation 2004 MN4) which was briefly rated a 4, an all-time record, on the Torino Scale and the only other asteroid to ever have been rated above Torino scale value 1.

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by Ricardo Vaz Monteiro