Space rocks that come close to Earth are defined as near-Earth objects , and asteroids that venture to within around 5 million miles of the planet get the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
The discovery of 2022 SF289 has shown that HelioLinc3D can spot asteroids with fewer observations than current space rock hunting techniques allow. Searching for potentially hazardous asteroids involves taking images of parts of the sky at least four times a night. When astronomers spot a moving point of light traveling in an unambiguous straight line across the series of images, they can be quite certain they have found an asteroid.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory as it takes shape in northern Chile ready to hunt potential hazardous asteroids With ATLAS data offered as such a test subject, HelioLinc3D set about looking for PHAs, and on July 18, 2023, it hit paydirt, uncovering 2022 SF289. This PHA was spotted by ATLAS on September 19, 2022, while it was 3 million miles from Earth. ATLAS had actually spotted this new PHA three times over the course of four nights but hadn't spotted it four times in the same night, meaning current surveys missed it.