Quote:
Originally posted by damienpaul@Jan 23 2004, 11:32 AM
Just a silly question, what does the colour code mean?
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Not silly at all.
Green: Asteroids which do not approach close to the Earth right now.
Yellow: Earth approaching asteroids which have orbits which come close to the Earth but they don't cross the Earth's orbit. However, their orbits are close enough to the Earth that they could potentially be perturbed by the influence of the planets and begin to cross the Earth's orbit in a short time.
Red: These cross the Earth's orbit and are the most directly identifiable astronomical threat for the near future.
This is all taken from (condensed from) the page that offers the map.