- 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 anasteroid 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 onNovember 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, astronomerDenis Denisenko recognized that the trajectory matched that of the Rosetta probe, which was performing aflyby ofEarth 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 ] ] TheMinor 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
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