Scientists have discovered a horrifying number of Near-Earth asteroids and the number is increasing by the day.
A horrifying number of near-Earth asteroids have been found and the count is growing by the day. More than 30000 near-Earth asteroids have been found! To be specific, there are 30039 near-Earth asteroids. A Phy.org report explains that these rocky bodies orbit around the Sun on a path that brings them close to Earth’s orbit. Surprisingly, the majority of these asteroids were discovered over the last 10 years, which shows that humanity’s ability to detect potentially hazardous asteroids is rapidly developing.
However, near-Earth asteroids are around a third of the roughly one million asteroids (specifically 1113527 asteroids) discovered so far in our solar system. NASA says that most of these asteroids reside in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
What are near-Earth asteroids
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) accurately characterizes the orbits of all known near-Earth objects, “predicts their close approaches with Earth, and makes comprehensive impact hazard assessments in support of the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ”
NASA defined near-Earth objects, which are asteroids and comets with orbits within 120 million miles or 195 million kilometers of the Sun. This simply means they can circulate through the Earth’s orbital neighborhood. Generally, most of the near-Earth objects are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet which is around a few meters to nearly 40 kilometers across.
Do you know? Scientists are researching and cataloguing Asteroids for more than two centuries since the very first asteroid, which is the Ceres Asteroid, discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Surprisingly, nearly one hundred years later, around 30 Km wide Eros was discovered on 13 August 1898 by Carl Gustav Witt and Felix Linke at the Urania Observatory in Berlin.
Should we worry?
Marco Micheli, Astronomer at ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center explained that “Of course, any asteroid discovered near Earth qualifies as a near-Earth asteroid, but many are found far from home. ” The report mentions that 1425 asteroids with a “non-zero” chance of impact are under observation, the NEOCC’s Asteroid Risk List is constantly updated on all the possible asteroids.
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