Astronomers have discovered another potentially dangerous asteroid they named 2023 DW. Unlike many other cases where media headlines suggest that a collision is imminent, this time things are really serious. At least now. According to current calculations of the object’s orbit, the chance of colliding with Earth is 1:625.

You may see other data up to 1:560 in other sources, possibly due to the data being updated on the ESA website. Anyway, that’s a very high indicator by cosmic standards. Thus, 2023 DW is currently the only asteroid with a rating of 1 on the Turin scale. All other objects we know of have been given to other asteroids before, although only after their orbits were clarified, the rating was lowered.

It should be said that the probability of a collision is for 2046. It’s funny, but the date is February 14, Valentine’s Day. During this time, the asteroid’s orbit will be rechecked and improved many times, so the probability of a collision may change. Probably all the way down, given the experience with other objects. As for the asteroid itself, its dimensions are about 50 meters in diameter. This is a rather large object – two or three times larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite. But of course such an asteroid does not pose any global threat to Earth.