BY JOHN PAWLAKWhite RockAt the grocery store, the total for my purchases came to an even $60. The cashier looked at the number and said, “Wow, right on an even ten dollar amount. What are the ...

At the time of the announcement in January, the asteroid’s impact probability was reported to exceed 1%. The impact probability describes how likely a hazardous asteroid is to hit Earth.

When scientists spot an asteroid whose trajectory might take it close to Earth, they monitor it frequently and calculate the probability that it might collide with our planet.

“Most math teachers live at the ‘analyze’ phase of that,” Maddox said. “They want to just do probability outside of a context: find the mean, find the standard deviation, find the math ...

Impact probability To see whether an approaching object could hit Earth, researchers find out what an asteroid’s orbit looks like using a technique called astrometry.

Keeping Earth safe from asteroids isn’t just spotting them – it’s also helping people understand what a high-impact probability with Earth means.