There’s no lack of
So we certainly don’t need any news sites twisting the truth about the looming menace of colossal asteroids supposedly coming to threaten Earth. Yet, it’s happening again. “A ‘potentially hazardous’ asteroid more than twice the size of the Empire State Building will make close pass by Earth,”
What the headlines don’t say is that a well-documented asteroid will
“We have never actually issued a warning,” NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer, Lindley Johnson,
Astronomers have followed the latest asteroid in question, asteroid 1994 PC1, for decades. Of the thousands of known asteroids the space agency follows, zero pose a threat for a long, long time.
“FACT: There is no known threat from any asteroid for at least the next 100 years,”
What to actually be concerned about
The significant asteroid threats are from the ones astronomers haven’t yet found. For example, a sizable space rock (some 187 to 427 feet wide)
Fortunately, your taxpayer dollars are hard at work sleuthing out these unknowns in our solar system. Astronomers have already
Rocks larger than 460-feet wide —
In the coming decades, finding the rest of these objects is critical. Then we can prepare for a potential impact.
“We need to be able to find these things early,” Cathy Plesko, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who researches asteroid impacts,
Credit: USGS National Map Data Download and Visualization Services
How would you know a serious asteroid was really a threat?
But here’s the short version: If NASA detects a potential impact — something larger than around 30 feet across (10 meters) with a greater than one percent chance of hitting Earth — the U.S. government will issue warnings.
And you wouldn’t just hear from NASA. National leaders, such as those in the White House, would communicate with the public.
“At that point, the White House takes the lead on new information being released,” NASA’s Johnson explained. “It becomes a national emergency event.” Crucially, this information will include what, exactly, is likely to happen. Will it probably explode in the sky, or will it collide with a region on Earth? Should you stay home? Will it likely land in the ocean?
What if scientists find an asteroid destined for Earth?
The good news is it’s quite unlikely a behemoth — a catastrophic object half-a-mile wide or larger — will come out of nowhere and destroy huge swathes of our humble blue planet. Astronomers have
But if scientists locate a rock (say 200 feet wide or larger) that’s on an imminent course to harm Earth’s inhabitants in the future (say at least a few decades), we may have the ability to deflect such an object.
In November 2021,
The DART spacecraft will hit the
Stay tuned. And avoid killer asteroid hype. One unknown day in the future, a real warning will come.