"Debunking the Myth of the Threatening Asteroid"

The Northolt Branch Observatories mistakenly identified the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission to Mercury as a potentially dangerous asteroid, 2020 GL2, with a 1 in 400,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2028. This misidentification was due to the spacecraft's flyby of Earth during a planetary maneuver. The object was initially thought to be a near-Earth asteroid, but further investigation revealed its artificial nature. The incident underscores the importance of vigilant sky monitoring to distinguish between actual asteroid threats and human-made objects.