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More About the Torino Scale
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This text written by Professor Richard P. Binzel, MIT |
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How does an object get its Torino Scale number?
![]() Source: http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/torino/prof.html Permission for image use, granted by Professor Richard P. Binzel, MIT Can the Torino Scale value for an object change? Yes! It is important to note that the Torino Scale value for any object initially categorized as 1 or greater _will_ change with time. The change will result from improved measurements of the object's orbit showing, most likely in all cases, that the object will indeed miss the Earth. Thus, the most likely outcome for a newly discovered object is that it will ultimately be re-assigned to category 0. Any object initially placed in category 0 is unlikely to have its Torino Scale value change with time. How did the Torino Scale get its name?
The Torino Scale was created by Professor
Richard P. Binzel in the Department of Earth,
Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The
first version, called "A Near-Earth Object Hazard Index",
was presented at a United Nations
conference in 1995 and was published by Binzel
in the subsequent conference proceedings
(Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, volume 822, 1997.)
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