39E-51-Asteroid 2007 VK184-Eliminated As An Impact Risk To Earth

On November 12, 2007, Alex Gibbs, using the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey Schmidt telescope, discovered a bright fast moving asteroid. It was then observed by telescopes in Italy, England, Arizona, California, and Australia and given the name 2007 VK184. This asteroid created a considerable amount of interest since, until recently, it posed the most significant threat of Earth impact of any known object for the next 100 years. In March of 2014 Dr. David Tholen used the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii to detect and track 2007 VK184. His observations, the first in more than 5 years, were used to calculate a new orbit. Fortunately, the new path poses no treat to the Earth and indicates that this asteroid will never get closer to us than about 6 times the distance to our Moon.