Asteroid impact prediction is the prediction of the dates and times of asteroids impacting Earth, along with the locations and severities of the impacts. The process of impact prediction follows three major steps: 1. * Discovery of an asteroid and initial assessment of its orbit which is generally based on a short observation arc of less than 2 weeks. 2. * Follow up observations to improve the orbit determination 3. * Calculating if, when and where the orbit may intersect with Earth at some point in the future.