One might be inclined to believe that Earth is a large chunk of rock flying solo on its orbit around the Sun, in the complete emptiness of space. Only space around at planet is far from empty. Did you know, for instance, that 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles hit the atmosphere of our planet each day? And these are the smallest dangers lurking out there.
Back in May, the American space agency released a short video to bring us up to date with all the space rocks that may change our way of life, should they decide our planet is ripe for plucking. And there’s a lot of them…
As far as Earth scientists know, as of May 2021 there are 25,705 near-Earth asteroids circling our planet like sharks, at various distances. For the record, a space object is considered near-Earth when its closest approach to our planet is less than an astronimical unit, or 150 million km (93.2 million miles).
Of those 25,000 asteroids, 9,632 further fit the definition of near-Earth objects by being larger than 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter, and 890 of them exceed 1 km (0.62 miles).
The worrying thing is that NASA estimates there are 15,000 more asteroids fitting the description out there, and we know absolutely nothing about them so far: we have no idea of their size, orbits, composition, and so on.
The video was released as part of a planetary defense bulletin of sorts. The space agency, together with a wealth of other interested parties, have been conducting for years so-called impact exercises to get us prepared for the time when we’ll have to face an asteroid impact.
The last one took place in Vienna last month, and the results, like all others before them, were disastrous. All of Earth greatest minds couldn’t stop an imaginary rock from slamming into Europe, even if these minds pretended they’ve discovered the asteroid six month prior to impact,
The worrying conclusion of the exercise was that current infrastructure for spacecraft and launch make reconnaissance or mitigation missions impossible.
As said, a near-Earth asteroid is considered as such if it passes by at less than one astronomical unit from Earth. But not all of them are that far out. As per NASA, 107 of these rocks passed closer to Earth than the Moon last year.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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