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Also not a scientist but presumably it's easier to track the precise location of something like that than accurately determine its size.
If they where something in space has been, they know where it's going with very high accuracy.
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Not really. You calculate the orbit/position based on its position in the sky relative to stars. You calculate its size based on brightness. As you're measuring two different things, uncertainty about one doesn't mean uncertainty about the other
Like a car driving towards you with headlights on. You don't need to know what colour it is to know where it's going
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The chance of it hitting earth vs passing between the earth and moon is much, much lower than the error factor between 40m vs 90m estimate.
Source: I've played Kerbal Space Program a lot...
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Brun
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@Lw.
So the end of the world is nigh. Anyone else slightly dubious about their claims there's "no chance" it'll hit earth as it passes between us & the moon when they can't even get the size locked down between 40-90m wide? I'm no scientist but surely there's at least a teenie tiny chance?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/24/city-killer-asteroid-to-pass-harmlessly-between-earth-and-moon