The asteroid

It’s all over the news, an asteroid has been spotted out in space and it’s aiming straight at us. At least the space news, or science news. Posted on the NASA website. All the space and science geeks are excited but almost no one else is paying attention. The reason is because it doesn’t hit earth until 2032, and then it is estimated that there is only a 3.1% of that happening. That means that there is 97% chance that it will miss us. So it probably won’t affect us. But people and government leaders can’t just hope that it won’t happen, they have to be sure. So let’s break it down.

the asteroid was first discovered in 2022 by an astronomer working for NASA using the Hubble telescope. At the time it was estimated that there was a 1% probability that it would strike earth. NASA astronomers and international space agencies turned their attention and telescopes onto the asteroid and have been watching it every day, using their computers to churn out the numbers involved to gain an accurate model of its path and where it will hit. At the same time other people and agencies are working on how they could prevent an impact by the asteroid. It’s serious stuff, not science fiction.

‘One of the first things they did was figure out how big the asteroid is. It’s about the size of a large SUV. Not as big as the infamous Apophis which was discovered in 2003 and was the size of an aircraft carrier. Now that is a big space rock and if it hit earth it would have caused major damage. But it missed earth, passing 20,000 miles from us (that’s closer than our telecommunication satellites orbiting earth). In 2022 NASA demonstrated that they could deflect an asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into it. Also, if needed, a thermonuclear bomomb could be launched and exploded into the asteroid in outer space, fragmenting it into smaller pieces so the impact would not be so catastrophic when it hit the surface. They have also factored in the probability of where it would land and the biggest probability would be an ocean or a large uninhabited desert. There is a small chance it would hit a city, but if it did it would destroy it and kill a large number of people, if the city wasn’t evacuated first. If it landed in an ocean a large tsunami would occur, with resulting flooding and damage to coastal areas. If it landed on to ground it would cause a huge explosion and firestorm, and the resulting smoke and dust would make for a nuclear winter because the sun would be blocked from reaching the surface and all crops in the immediate region would be wiped out.

fun facts about space rocks hitting earth.

Almost 10,000 meteorites hit Earth every year | Tech NewsScientists estimate that thousands of meteorites hit Earth each year, but most go unnoticed.

How many meteorites hit Earth each year?

A study by the University of Manchester and Imperial College found that about 17,000 meteorites fall to Earth each year.

NASA estimates that about 48.5 tons (44,000 kilograms) of meteoritic material falls on Earth each day.

The frequency of asteroid impacts is generally related to the size of the asteroid: smaller objects strike more frequently than larger objects. Interestingly, the Earth gets showered in almost 100 tons of meteoric dust each day. Also, each day, the planet is bombarded by numerous objects the size sand grains and pebbles. Objects the size of the smallest asteroids, ~1-meter across (3 feet) strike a few times per year. The asteroid that impacted Earth over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in 2013 was approximately 19-meters across (~62 feet); events of this size occur on average every 60-80 years. In 1908, a 50-meter (~165 feet) asteroid impacted the remote Tunguska region of Siberian Russia; an object of this size impacts on average every 200-300 years. So, you get the idea, the bigger the space rock, the less common the threat of impact. Really big asteroids, larger than 1-kilometer across (~3300 feet) are considered the most dangerous, as their impact energy is large enough to be extremely disruptive, or catastrophic for life on Earth. A 1-kilometer asteroid or comet impacts Earth, on average every 500,000 years. Asteroids or comets larger than 10-kilometers (6-miles) are potentially 'planet killing' asteroids, like the asteroid that struck ~65 million years ago killing off the dinosaurs and much of the other life forms on Earth, and which made the crater which makes up the gulf of America. (Aka the Gulf of Mexico).

impact avoidance encompasses the methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) on a potential collision course with Earth could be diverted, preventing destructive impact events. An impact by a sufficiently large asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis or multiple firestorms, and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of large quantities of pulverized rock dust and other debris placed into the stratosphere. A collision 66 million years ago between the Earth and an object approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide is thought to have produced the Chicxulub crater and triggered the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that is understood by the scientific community to have caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.

While the chances of a major collision are low in the near term, it is a near-certainty that one will happen eventually unless defensive measures are taken. Astronomical events—such as the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, along with the growing number of near-Earth objects discovered and catalogued on the Sentry Risk Table—have drawn renewed attention to such threats. The popularity of the 2021 movie Don't Look Up helped to raise awareness of the possibility of avoiding NEOs ( Near Earth Objects).

In 2016, a NASA scientist warned that the Earth is unprepared for such an event. In April 2018, the B612 Foundation reported "It's 100 percent certain we'll be hit by a devastating asteroid, but we're not 100 percent sure when." Also in 2018, physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet. Several ways of avoiding an asteroid impact have been described. Nonetheless, in March 2019, scientists reported that asteroids may be much more difficult to destroy than thought earlier. An asteroid may reassemble itself due to gravity after being disrupted. In May 2021, NASA astronomers reported that 5 to 10 years of preparation may be needed to avoid a virtual impactor based on a simulated exercise conducted by the 2021 Planetary Defense Conference.

In 2022, NASA spacecraft DART impacted Dimorphos, reducing the minor-planet moon's orbital period by 32 minutes. This mission constitutes the first successful attempt at asteroid deflection. In 2025, CNSA plans to launch another deflection mission to near-Earth object 2019 VL5, a 30-meter-wide (100 ft.) asteroid, which will include both an impactor and observer spacecraft. serious people are working tirelessly every day to protect us from catastrophic asteroid collisions which will happen eventually.