Tag: asteroids

Why Are Scientists Suddenly So Concerned About An Asteroid Hitting Earth?

Authorities assure us that we are perfectly safe and that no giant space rocks are heading our way. If that is true, why is a scenario that has been developed for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference “based around a hypothetical impact threat” from a very large asteroid? And why are scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studying how to destroy a giant asteroid that is heading toward Earth using nuclear weapons? If there is no threat anywhere on the horizon, wouldn’t you think that those scientists would have something better to do with their time? On top of everything else, NASA recently concluded a secretive operation known as “OSIRIS-REx” in which a spacecraft visited an asteroid, plucked a piece off of it, and returned it to Earth. While the general public is being told that we are safe for decades to come, a tremendous amount of time, money and energy is being poured into preparing for a potential asteroid threat.

Do they know something that the rest of us do not?

I am convinced that there is far more going on behind the scenes than we are being told.

They never say anything that will alarm the general public, but at the same time they are pumping vast resources into “sophisticated planetary defense efforts” that are intended to protect our planet “from potentially hazardous asteroids”…

Would we be prepared if a potentially life-threatening object from space were on a collision course with Earth? And how much damage could an incoming asteroid actually cause?

Such questions remain at the forefront of increasingly sophisticated planetary defense efforts aimed at protecting our planet from potentially hazardous asteroids. Yet even if astronomers are able to identify a space object that might pose a threat, a significant number of uncertainties remain: the object’s size, composition, structure, and potential impact locations all must be considered, as these factors can dramatically influence what happens once an asteroid enters Earth’s atmosphere.

If there are no near-Earth objects that are a threat, why spend so much money on this?

We certainly have a lot of other very pressing matters that do require funding right now.

NASA is either wasting our money, or something else is going on.

Interestingly, NASA is a participant in the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference. An exercise is underway that simulates how authorities would respond to a “Tunguska-sized object” that is headed toward Earth…

Additionally, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) regularly participates in planetary defense exercises designed to test these assessment methods, with current scenarios under development for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference that take a cue from one of history’s most concerning airburst events.

“The current exercise that is underway for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference is based around a hypothetical impact threat from a roughly Tunguska-sized object,” Wheeler told The Debrief.

For those of you that are not familiar, in 1908 the Tunguska event flattened approximately 2,000 square kilometers in Siberia…

Tunguska event, enormous explosion that is estimated to have occurred at 7:14 AM plus or minus one minute on June 30, 1908, at an altitude of 5-10 km (15,000-30,000 feet), flattening some 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) and charring more than 100 square km of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia (60°55′ N 101°57′ E), Russia. The energy of the explosion is estimated to have been equivalent to the explosive force of as much as 15 megatons of TNT – a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Why hold an exercise of this nature if there is absolutely no threat of this sort of event occurring for decades to come?

And why did NASA just send a small spacecraft to grab a piece of an asteroid known as Bennu and bring it back to Earth?…

On Sept. 30, NASA formally concluded OSIRIS-REx, the historic first U.S. mission to pluck a pristine piece of an asteroid and deliver it safely back to Earth.

The van-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – whose name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer – visited and sampled Bennu, an ancient space rock holding pristine remnants from the dawn of our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. Among those cosmic relics are raw organic building blocks, the kind that may have seeded life on Earth.

“I have known this day was coming for a long time, but it is still difficult to see it arrive,” OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, who’s based at the University of Arizona, said in a post on LinkedIn. “I feel enormous pride in what we accomplished together, and real sadness that this journey has come to an end.”

That was certainly an impressive scientific achievement.

But it also cost a lot of money to do that.

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‘City killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 could shower Earth with ‘bullet-like’ meteors if it hits the moon in 2032

New simulations reveal that the infamous “city killer” asteroid 2024 YR4 could shower Earth with “bullet-like” debris if it hits the moon in seven years’ time, potentially triggering an eye-catching meteor shower — and endangering the satellites that orbit our planet.

2024 YR4 is a potentially hazardous asteroid measuring roughly 200 feet (60 meters) across, making it large enough to wipe out a large urban area if it were to hit Earth head-on. It was first discovered in December 2024 but made headlines earlier this year when scientists first predicted that there was a chance it could smash into Earth on Dec. 22, 2032. The odds of a collision peaked at 3.1% in February, which was enough to prompt NASA to study it extensively. However, subsequent analysis revealed there is zero chance of it impacting our planet.

But in April, researchers realized that, while Earth is no longer in the firing line, the space rock could still hit the moon. The odds of such a collision have grown slowly but steadily, and most recently jumped to 4.3% earlier this month. Experts will likely know the final likelihood by 2028, when the asteroid will make its next close approach to our planet.

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The asteroid that will spare Earth might hit the moon instead. What happens if it does?

The asteroid known as 2024 YR4 is out of sight yet still very much on scientists’ minds.

The building-sized object, which initially appeared to be on a potential collision course with Earth, is currently zooming beyond the reach of telescopes on its orbit around the sun. But as scientists wait for it to reappear, its revised trajectory is now drawing attention to another possible target: the moon.

Discovered at the end of 2024, the space rock looked at first as if it might hit our planet by December 22, 2032. The chance of that impact changed with every new observation, peaking at 3.1% in February — odds that made it the riskiest asteroid ever observed.

Ground- and space-based telescope observations were crucial in helping astronomers narrow in on 2024 YR4’s size and orbit. With more precise measurements, researchers were ultimately able to rule out an Earth impact.

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ASTEROID BIGGER THAN THE LONDON EYE TO PASS BY EARTH THIS WEEK, NASA SAYS

Two objects will fly by Earth this weekend, passing by safely despite suggestions that Nasa has warned they could pose a threat.

The asteroids are classed as “potentially hazardous” by the space agency, but that is a relatively flexible definition that simply means they could cause problems at some point in the future.

That has not stopped a number of stories reporting that Nasa has issued “warnings” about the dangers from the objects, or suggestions that the objects are flying at rather than past the Earth.

In fact, the two objects – known as 2016 DY30 and 2020 ME3 – will be further away than the Moon, even at their closest point to Earth.

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NASA warns massive asteroid bigger than London Eye shooting towards Earth’s orbit

NASA has warned a space rock one and a half times larger than the London Eye is shooting towards Earth’s orbit next week.

The asteroid is set to make a close approach to planet Earth and has been branded as “potentially hazardous” by the US-based experts.

NASA scientists have since given the celestial rock the name Asteroid 2020ND.

The asteroid measures in at 170m tall and is make its closes approach to Earth next Friday, July 24.

It will come within just 0.034 astronomical units (AU) of our planet, NASA has warned.

The space agency said: “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.

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