Three months later, the scale has seen little use. That suits its creator just fine. The scale uses numbers and colors to calculate the estimated risk of an asteroid colliding with Earth. A zero or one on the scale indicates a low probability that a particular rock from space will hit Earth while a 10 on the scale is a near-promise of global catastrophe. Meanwhile, since its inception in June, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of Binzel's scale, initially billed as a Richter scale for asteroids.
Many scientists believe a large asteroid was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs.
While the Torino Scale's official status within the IAU is unclear, most NEO researchers say it has the potential to be useful, even if they have concerns about its adoption. The risk for XF11 was subsequently found to be zero after fresh data was studied. But Marsden says the announcement of XF11 was the very thing that brought out the additional data that eliminated the threat. In the end, he says, the publicity helped improve NEO research. To be sure, XF11 was a catalyst for scientific discourse that eventually contributed to the adoption of the very Torino Scale that Marsden criticizes.