Talk:2019 AQ3

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Number of near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 km[edit]

I recently made and edit that changed the stated number of NEOs > 1 km from 896 to 693 as that is the total if you sum up all of the years of discoveries in the cited table (https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/site_km.html). In trying to figure out the discrepancy I've only made myself more confused though! According to the table at https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/stats/totals.html the total number of NEOs > 1 km is 861, closer to the number originally quoted here but way off from the number I changed it to.

Could someone please tell me how I'm being an idiot? 😅 Pinging Rontombontom who's seemingly worked a lot with these numbers (many thanks!) and might be able to shed some light on this. Aluxosm (talk) 14:07, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The "missing asteroids" are NEAs discovered before 1995. In the >1 km class, there were a lot.

The reduction from 896 to 861 came about due to the re-assessment of the diameter of several asteroids, on the basis of more precise measurements (like radar, or spectral determination of albedo).

As a general rule, if you're uncertain, to avoid possible misinterpretations, try to avoid using derived numbers, and find sources where the summing and subtracting and dividing and multiplying has been done by experts already. Rontombontom (talk) 16:44, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I updated links & data in the article. Would you mind updating the orbit diagrams? Rontombontom (talk) 17:25, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely, I'll get right to it. Thanks for the explanation and advice, all much appreciated! Aluxosm (talk) 18:32, 6 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]