Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Scientists who study asteroids often say that Earth is drifting through a cosmic shooting gallery.Some angry space rocks, like the recent <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chelyabinsk-meteor-mystery-3-years-later-2016-2">Chelyabinsk meteorite</a> that exploded over Russia, are big enough to shatter windows and crumble walls. Others, like the one that caused the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-meteors-to-crash-into-earth-2016-2#3-2008-tc3-3">Tunguska Event</a> of 1908, can flatten entire cities. A handful can <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chicxulub-asteroid-strike-cretaceous-paleogene-extinction-2017-11">trigger global extinctions</a>, like the asteroid that smashed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago.But how big of an asteroid does it take to damage cities, states, countries, and the planet?On the fourth-annual <a href="http://www.un.org/en/events/asteroidday/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Asteroid Day</a> (Saturday, June 30), we take a look at estimates from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asteroids-could-destroy-earth-and-we-cant-even-find-them-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>, Purdue University's "<a href="https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Impact Earth</a>" simulator, and other sources.Images in this story come from a previously published <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-damage-hit-land-earth-video-2016-10">video</a>.

How large asteroids must be to destroy a city, state, country, or the planet

<ul><li>Dual asteroids are rare and even more infrequent when they are big in size.</li><li>Asteroid 467317 (2000 QW7) is as big as the Shanghai Tower — the second tallest building in the world.</li><li>The two asteroids are set to pass by Earth in the same 24-hour window on 14 September 2019.</li></ul>Two asteroids already whizzed past Earth this week and now, two more are set to fly by on 14 September 2019. But this time around, the pair will be bigger and faster — but also further away. The first asteroid, which will be bigger than the Empire State Building and India’s own Statue of Unity, is set to whiz past Earth at a speed of 23,000 kilometers per hou. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) estimates that the asteroid dubbed <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/The-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-Earth-in-2019/3467317-2000-QW7/slideshow/70686174.cms">467317 (2000 QW7)</a> could be anywhere between 290 meters to 650 meters in diameter. So, at its largest, the asteroid measures around the same size as the Shanghai Tower — the second tallest building in the world. And, it won’t be alone. In the same 24-hour window, Asteroid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/The-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-Earth-in-2019/504800-2010-CO1/slideshow/70686170.cms">504800 (2010 CO1)</a>, estimated to be between 120 meters to 260 meters in diameter, will be flying past the planet at a speed of 51,696 kilometers per hour. Both them of them are going to be around 5.3 million kilometers from Earth as they make their visit. This is the second time in the span of a month that dual asteroids are whizzing past the planet. On 28 August 2019, two asteroids — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/two-asteroids-bigger-than-the-japan-tsunamis-are-coming-eerily-close-to-earth-today/articleshow/70870605.cms">2019 OU1 and 2019 QS</a>— flew past Earth within hours of each other. Don’t fear, but who’s gonna be there? NASA’s Center of Near Earth Object Studies is tracking both the asteroids and do not seem to pose any danger as of now. Should that change, NASA’s current defense plan against any incoming asteroids is the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) — which is still under development. Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/elon-musk-says-we-have-no-defence-against-asteroid-god-of-chaos/articleshow/70748251.cms">opines</a> that, “A big rock will eventually hit Earth eventually and we currently have no defence.” In June, astronomers have already shown that in case an asteroid poses a threat — then can move people out of harm’s away in time. When asteroid 2019 MO was barrelling towards Earth on 22 June 2019, scientists at the University of Hawaii used the ATLAS and Pan-STARRS telescopes to detect the asteroid’s path. They were able to confirm that the asteroid would burn up in the atmosphere, over the ocean, 400 kilometers away from San Juan. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/historys-most-famous-science-satellites-have-grown-to-enormous-proportions/articleshow/49279291.cms">ATLAS</a>, which is actually two telescopes in Hawaii — one on Big Island and the other on Maui — scans the skies every two days for asteroids that could be heading towards Earth. It claims to be able to detect small asteroids 12 hours in advance and bigger asteroids will be on their radar days before they’re anywhere near Earth. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">An asteroid only turns into a meteor if it falls to Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-last-major-asteroid-to-hit-earth-destroyed-500-square-kilometers-and-it-could-have-been-much-worse/articleshow/70782507.cms">The last major asteroid to hit Earth destroyed 500 square kilometers — and it could have been much worse</a>

Another pair of asteroids is going to whiz past Earth on 14 September — Bigger, faster but further away

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Ryan Lash/TEDCarrie Nugent, asteroid hunter.</div></div></div>Carrie Nugent spends a lot of time looking at space rocks. It's par for the course in her line of work. Nugent is an asteroid hunter - someone who studies and catalogs the numerous asteroids that surround us near Earth.Once upon a time, the idea that an asteroid could hit the earth and wipe out civilization (or just a big swath of land) was laughable. Then, in the 1990s, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater">theory</a> that dinosaurs were destroyed by an asteroid impact gained traction. The idea didn't seem so silly anymore. These days, researchers have found over 90% of the near-Earth objects that are larger than 1 kilometer in diameter (not all of which are at risk of hitting our planet). Nugent works with a team of scientists at Caltech that studies asteroids using NASA's Earth-orbiting NEOWISE infrared telescope. A typical week for her goes something like this: First, wait for NEOWISE to take images and beam them back to Earth. This happens every 11 seconds. If it's a Monday, Nugent checks the images to make sure they're usable. Her colleagues look at the images the other days of the week. Three times a week, Nugent and her colleagues run the photos through a supercomputer that looks for new asteroids. The computer can tell stars from asteroids, and differentiate new asteroids from the ones that have been found previously. Every set of images that the computer thinks might contain a new asteroid has to be checked by hand. This happens every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Nugent and her colleagues usually find 1 or 2 new near-Earth asteroids every week.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">NASA/JPL CaltechAn artist's rendering of NEOCam.</div></div></div>The<a href="https://crnugent.com/research/"> NEOWISE telescope</a> has discovered over 30,000 new asteroids since its launch in 2009."NEOWISE doesn't find the most asteroids compared to most of the surveys, but we find dark, big asteroids because we look at thermal infrared [measurements]," Nugent tells Tech Insider. Even with dedicated asteroid-hunting astronomers like Nugent, though, we still miss countless near-Earth asteroids. (And according to Nugent, we only know the size of one in five asteroids we do have cataloged.)There's one thing that could make the asteroid search a lot easier: a supercharged, dedicated asteroid-hunting telescope. NEOWISE wasn't originally designed to find asteroids; it's a repurposed NASA spacecraft that once was once used to find remote objects in the universe, including black holes, galaxies, and stars. A next-generation telescope, called The Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), would be created for asteroid hunting from the ground up."NEOWISE needed a cryogen coolant to keep its sensors cool, and that ran out. Now we can only use two wavelength bands that didn't need the coolant," says Nugent. "NEOCam wouldn't need cryogen, and it would also be able to see entirely new areas of space. It can scan the sky in a new way."Nugent and her colleagues worked on the proposal for NEOCam, and they'll find out if it gets funding from NASA in the fall. As of now, we are only aware of a quarter of the asteroids capable of causing regional destruction if they hit Earth. But Nugent - <a href="http://blog.ted.com/meet-the-2016-class-of-ted-fellows-and-senior-fellows/">a TED Fellow</a> who spoke about her work at the 2016 TED conference in February - <a href="https://crnugent.com/research/">says that NEOCam</a> could allow scientists to find 66% of those asteroids four years after its launch.For asteroid hunters like Nugent - and for the rest of us who'd rather not experience an asteroid sneak attack- that would be a huge deal. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/20000-sirin-solarin-smartphone-encryption-security-android-2016-6">This is what a $20,000 smartphone looks like</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Zyand2MzE6IEPKJNO9mrdo0VBxIM2UPd" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

An asteroid hunter reveals how she finds the space rocks that could destroy earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> agencies around the world took part in a <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="67741" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Simulation">simulation</keyword> of an asteroid-impact scenario.</li><li>The participating experts learned about a fictitious <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword>'s trajectory and had to react.</li><li>In the exercise, they couldn't stop it from hitting Europe, showing how <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">unprepared we are for such a crisis</a>.</li></ul>Scientists around the world have been bamboozled this week by a fictitious asteroid heading toward Earth.A group of experts from US and European space agencies attended a week-long exercise led by NASA in which they faced a hypothetical scenario: An asteroid 35 million miles away was approaching the planet and could hit within six months.With each passing day of the exercise, the participants learned more about the asteroid's size, trajectory, and chance of impact. Then they had to cooperate and use their technological knowledge to see if anything could be done to stop the space rock.The experts fell short. The group determined that none of Earth's existing technologies could stop the hypothetical asteroid from striking given the six-month timeframe of the simulation. In this alternate reality, the asteroid crashed into eastern Europe.As far as we know, no asteroids currently pose a threat to Earth in this way. But an estimated two-thirds of asteroids 460 feet in size or bigger - large enough to wreak considerable havoc - <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/faq/">remain undiscovered</a>. That's why NASA and other agencies are attempting to prepare for such a situation. "These exercises ultimately help the planetary-defense community communicate with each other and with our governments to ensure we are all coordinated should a potential impact threat be identified in the future," Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-to-participate-in-tabletop-exercise-simulating-asteroid-impact">said in a press release</a>. <h2>6 months is not enough time to prepare for an asteroid impact</h2>The fictitious asteroid in the simulation was called 2021PDC. In NASA's scenario, it was first "spotted" on April 19, at which time it was thought to have a 5% of hitting our planet on October 20, six months after its discovery date. But Day 2 of the exercise fast-forwarded to May 2, when new impact-trajectory calculations showed that 2021PDC would almost certainly hit either Europe or northern Africa. The participants in the simulation considered various missions in which spacecraft could try to destroy the asteroid or deflect it off its path.<div type="image" title="hypothetical impact" height="915" width="1120" msid="82344056" hostid="261"></div>But they concluded that such missions wouldn't be able to get off the ground in the short amount of time before the asteroid's impact."If confronted with the 2021PDC hypothetical scenario in real life, we would not be able us to launch any spacecraft on such short notice with current capabilities," <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/pdc21/pdc21_day2_briefing2.pdf">the participants said</a>. They also considered trying to blow up or disrupt the asteroid using a nuclear explosive device."Deploying a nuclear disruption mission could significantly reduce the risk of impact damage," they found.Still, the simulation stipulated that 2021PDC could be anywhere from 114 feet to half a mile in size, so the chance that a nuke could make a dent was uncertain. Day 3 of the exercise skipped ahead to June 30, and Earth's future looked grim: 2021PDC's impact trajectory showed it headed for eastern Europe. By Day 4, which fast-forwarded to a week before the asteroid impact, there was a 99% chance the asteroid would hit near the border between Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria. The explosion would bring as much energy as a large nuclear bomb.All that could be done was evacuate the affected regions ahead of time.<h2>Most asteroids fly under the radar, and many are spotted too late</h2><div type="image" title="dinosaur asteroid meteor" height="1017" width="1440" msid="82344057" hostid="261"></div>It's tempting to assume that in the real world, astronomers would spot an asteroid akin to 2021PDC with much more notice than six months. But the world's ability to surveil near-Earth objects (NEOs) is woefully incomplete.Any space rock with an orbit that takes it within 125 million miles of the sun is considered an NEO. But Johnson said in July that NASA thinks "we've only found about a third of the population of asteroids that are out there that could represent an impact hazard to the Earth."Of course, humanity hopes to avoid a surprise like the dinosaurs got 65 million years ago, when a 6-mile-wide asteroid crashed into the Earth. But in recent years, scientists have missed plenty of large, dangerous objects that came close.<div type="image" title="comet neowise japan" height="1406" width="2500" msid="82344060" hostid="261"></div>Comet Neowise, a 3-mile-wide chunk of space ice, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">passed with 64 million miles of Earth</a> in July. Nobody knew that comet existed until a NASA space telescope discovered it approaching four months prior.In 2013, a meteor about 65 feet in diameter entered the atmosphere traveling 40,000 mph. It exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, without warning, sending out a shock wave that broke windows and damaged buildings across the region. More than 1,400 people were injured.<div type="image" title="asteroid russia Chelyabinsk" height="3744" width="5616" msid="82344061" hostid="261"></div>And in 2019, a 427-foot-wide, "city-killer" asteroid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flies-close-to-earth-surprising-scientists-2019-7">flew within 45,000 miles of Earth</a>. NASA had almost no warning about it.That's because currently, the only way scientists can track an NEO is by pointing one of Earth's limited number of powerful telescopes in the right direction at the right time. To address that problem, NASA announced two years ago that it would launch a new space telescope dedicated to watching for hazardous asteroids. That telescope, named the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission, along with the European Space Agency's newly launched <a href="https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/Planetary_Defence/New_ESA_telescope_in_South_America_to_search_for_asteroids" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Test-Bed Telescope</a> and the <a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/02/Flyeye_Observatory" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Flyeye Telescope</a> that's being built in Italy, should eventually bolster the number of NEOs we can track.<h2>NASA is testing ways to stymie an asteroid</h2><div type="image" title="DART nasa asteroid mission spacecraft" height="1406" width="2500" msid="82344065" hostid="261"></div>NASA has investigated the options scientists would have if they were to find a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with Earth. These include detonating an explosive device near the space rock, as the exercise participants suggested, or firing lasers that could heat up and vaporize the asteroid enough to change its path.Another possibility is sending a spacecraft up to slam into an oncoming asteroid, thereby knocking it off its trajectory. This is the strategy NASA is most serious about: Later this year, the agency is scheduled to launch a test of such a technology. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (<keyword id="348209" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dart">DART</keyword>) will send a spacecraft to the asteroid Dimorphos and purposefully hit it in the fall of 2022.NASA hopes that collision will change Dimorphos's orbit. While that asteroid isn't a threat to Earth, the mission could prove that redirecting an asteroid is possible with enough lead time.

In a NASA simulation of an asteroid impact, scientists concluded they couldn't stop a space rock from decimating Europe

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div>APIn this frame grab made from a video done with a dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>, provided by Nasha Gazeta newspaper, on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 a meteorite contrail is seen. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)</div>
It was an incredible day for near-Earth objects, with two rare cosmic events occurring on the same day. 
First, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-huge-meteor-just-exploded-over-russia-2013-2">a tiny asteroid actually hit Earth, creating a significant explosion over eastern Russia</a> around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 15 in that part of the world. 
Less than 24 hours later, a larger <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword>, 2012 DA14, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/live-building-sized-asteroid-nears-earth-2013-2">passed safely above Earth at a distance of around 17,200 miles</a>, the closest an object of that size has come to our planet since scientists began monitoring the skies. Astronomers had been tracking that asteroid for about a year and knew that it posed no danger of colliding with Earth. 
<keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> held a teleconference this afternoon to discuss both events.
Here's what they know so far:
The Russia meteor is estimated to have been about 50 feet in diameter, which is considered a tiny asteroid, according to meteor expert Bill Cooke. 
Scientists say they did not detect the asteroid because it came out of the daytime sky. These are nearly impossible to find ahead of time because telescopes can only spot asteroids during the night. 
The small asteroid hit the atmosphere moving at a blistering 40,000 miles per hour. That's more than twice as fast as asteroid 2012 DA12 is moving. The <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock lasted about 30 seconds in the atmosphere before breaking apart 12 to 15 miles above Earth's surface. 
When the asteroid broke apart it produced an explosion that created a shockwave, which struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk below.
In order for a tiny asteroid to slow down, the atmosphere will absorb that energy and emit it as heat and light.
"The event must have been brighter than the sun if you were there to watch it," said Paul Chodas, research scientist in NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office.
The shockwave caused windows to break and walls to collapse, injuring hundreds of people as a result. No injuries were caused by fragments falling from the sky. There are undoubtedly pieces of rock on the ground, but none have been verified with certainty yet. 
The energy released by the event was 500 kilotons, according to Cooke, leaving a trail in the sky about 300 miles long. This is the largest recorded meteorite impact <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunguska-an-mysterious-explosion-rocked-siberia-104-years-ago-today-2013-2">since the Tunguska explosion in 1908</a>.
Scientists also verified that the Russia meteor is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14 in any way. They know this because asteroid 2012 DA14 is about three times bigger, at 150 feet in diameter, and it was traveling in a different direction, from south to north. 
Fortunately both asteroids were relatively small in nature. Tiny asteroids like the one that exploded over Russia hit the Earth on average about once every 100 years, Chodas said. Although it is an incredible coincidence that both phenomenons happened on the same day. 
The bigger threat to Earth is large asteroids, like the <a href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/02/07/new-evidence-comet-or-asteroid-impact-was-last-straw-for-dinosaurs/">one that ultimately wiped out the dinosaurs</a>. NASA, the lead agency in worldwide asteroid tracking, says it has found about 95 percent of large near-Earth asteroids, asteroids that are close enough and big enough to pose a hazard to Earth, though not necessarily headed in our planet's direction. 
<h3>Now Watch: 5 Ways The World Is Going To End, According To The Mayan And Other Calendars </h3>

<div id="ooyalaplayer" style="width: 618px; height: 347px;"> </div>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
OO.ready(function() { OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer', 'F2NWtyNzpD2NihIvthen1-VK3WAXGgOg'); });
// ]]></script>

Here's Why Astronomers Did Not Detect The Russia Meteor Ahead Of Time

<ul><li>There was a one-in-7,000 chance that <keyword id="7880370" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid-2006-qv89">Asteroid 2006 QV89</keyword> would impact Earth on 9 September 2019.</li><li>Previous observations of the asteroid were not enough to figure out the asteroid's path, the scientists were unable to track QV89.</li><li>But, they do know where it would show up it it were on a collision course for Earth.</li><li>Using that information, the <keyword id="59844" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="European-Space-Agency">European Space Agency</keyword> (ESA) used a ‘non-detection’ technique to rule out the possibility of the QV89 crashing into the Earth.</li></ul>An asteroid which was expected to hit the Earth on 9 September 2019 might, not be on its way to Earth after all. Lately, there have been a lot of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">close calls</a> with asteroids as big as the Empire State Building and the Pyramid of Giza passing awfully close to Earth. Even though these asteroids aren't big enough to wipe out the planet, they could still <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">destroy whole cities</a> if they were to plummet to the planet's surface. Scientists speculate the resulting impact would be greater than the impact of nuclear bombs. Thankfully, the European Space Agency (<a href="https://m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Safety/ESA_confirms_asteroid_will_miss_Earth_in_2019">ESA</a>) has determined that Asteroid 2006 QV89 is not on a ‘collision course’ to Earth because the asteroid isn’t where it’s supposed to be if it were heading here. In fact, there’s no sign of the asteroid in that area of deep space, and it’s highly unlikely that it’s coming to Earth at all — though some scientists feel its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">only a matter of time</a> This is the first time that a ‘non-detection’ technique has been used to rule out an asteroid impact. As long as it's not ‘there’ Since astronomers can’t determine the trajectory of the asteroid, they had no way of knowing where QV89 was. It’s hard to find something if you don’t know where to look. So, instead, the ESA and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) too look into deep space. No just anywhere, but in a small area of the sky where the asteroid would be seen if it were on its way to Earth. 
 <div type="image" title="ESA - orbit" msid="70270772" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The region of the sky where Asteroid 2000 QV89 should have been if it were on a collision course for Earth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



 Thankfully, it was empty. Why were we worried? There was only a one-in-7,000 chance that the asteroid would impact Earth based on observations from its first visit on August 2006. After it was sighted, the asteroid stuck around for ten days before disappearing into space, never to be seen since. Ten days is hardly enough time but anytime there is even a possibility, however remote, of an asteroid hitting Earth, observations and measurements are mandatory. Using the observations, scientists were able to determine the asteroid's path, the potential risk, and rule out a collision all together. But this time around it was concluded that there was a 1-in-7000 chance that it would collide with Earth on 9 September 2019. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-japanese-spacecraft-has-landed-on-an-asteroid-after-blasting-it-with-a-bullet-the-mission-will-bring-back-rock-samples-to-earth-/articleshow/70184280.cms">A Japanese spacecraft has landed on an asteroid after blasting it with a bullet. The mission will bring back rock samples to Earth.</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/asteroid-shows-half-of-the-worlds-ocean-came-from-outer-space/articleshow/69139347.cms">There’s now proof that half of the world’s oceans came from outer space</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-1100-foot-wide-asteroid-is-on-course-to-pass-by-earth-in-a-decade/articleshow/69153356.cms">A 1,100-foot-wide asteroid is on course to pass by Earth in a decade</a>

An asteroid was supposed to hit Earth in September — but astronomers can’t seem to find it

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Yesterday, a 427-foot-wide asteroid passed within 45,000 miles of Earth.</li><li>Small asteroids can <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/asteroid-impacts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strike Earth</a> with the force of many nuclear weapons and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">destroy entire cities</a>.</li><li>NASA and other agencies have tools to spot these objects in space, but it's difficult <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-detection-mission-neocam-nasa-funding-astronaut-support-2018-11">to track</a> every near-Earth asteroid.</li><li>Astronomers weren't aware of this particular asteroid, named 2019 OK, until just days before it flew by. That isn't enough time for any existing technology to deflect, destroy, or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-simulated-stopping-asteroid-fragment-hitting-new-york-city-2019-5">divert an oncoming space object</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.&#xa0;</li></ul>A 427-foot-wide asteroid whizzed within 45,000 miles of Earth yesterday.While that may sound far away, 45,000 miles is what astronomers consider a close shave: It's less than 20% of the distance between Earth and the moon. This was the closest we've come to an Armageddon-like scenario in at least <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">a few years</a>.&#xa0;Scientists didn't know the asteroid - named 2019 OK - might be a threat to Earth until it was far too late for humanity to do anything about the gargantuan space rock.No one in the astronomy community had been tracking this particular asteroid. It seemed to come "out of nowhere," Michael Brown, an astronomer in Australia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">told the Washington Post</a> - barreling in our direction at 54,000 miles per hour.&#xa0;Read More: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-detection-mission-neocam-nasa-funding-astronaut-support-2018-11">Astronaut says a neglected telescope is NASA's best chance of defending Earth from 'city killer' asteroids - 'for God's sake, fund it'</a>The gif below shows how close a shave it was, as 2019 OK squeaks between Earth and Venus' orbits.&#xa0;<h2>The asteroid was a 'city-killer'</h2>Although 2019 OK was wider than the Statue of Liberty is tall, it's relatively small compared to the 6-mile-wide rock that hit modern-day Mexico and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. NASA tracks about 90% of those types of big asteroids (the ones half a mile in diameter or more).But an asteroid doesn't need to be miles wide to cause significant damage.&#xa0;In 1908, a space rock estimated to be several hundred feet in diameter (a bit smaller than 2019 OK) screamed into Earth's atmosphere traveling many thousands of miles per hour. It exploded over the remote Tunguska region of Siberia with the force of a thermonuclear weapon, flattening trees in an area nearly twice the size of New York City.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Scientists have dubbed such asteroids "city-killers."In 2005, Congress directed NASA to track down 90% of near-Earth asteroids with a width of 460 feet (140 meters) or more by 2020. As of December 2018, however, telescopes on Earth and in space had found <a href="https://spacenews.com/op-ed-policing-the-cosmic-neighborhood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than one third</a> of these near-Earth objects (NEOs).&#xa0;Keeping tabs on small asteroids is challenging, since scientists can only track an NEO by pointing a telescope in the right place at the right time.&#xa0;Telescopes detect the sunlight that these asteroids reflect, but the smaller the asteroid, the fainter the reflection, and the harder it is for a telescope to spot the rock.&#xa0;<h2>Scientists had almost no warning about 2019 OK</h2>Research teams in <a href="https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K19/K19O56.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brazil and the United States</a> didn't discover that 2019 OK was approaching until less than a week before it passed by. Astronomers didn't release information about how big the asteroid was or where it was heading until mere hours before it flew by Earth, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">Brown told the Post</a>."People are only sort of realizing what happened pretty much after it's already flung past us," he added.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div>Having as much advance notice of an impending collision as possible is imperative, because more lead-up time gives scientists a better chance of figuring out how to divert an asteroid from its current path."With just a day or week's notice, we would be in real trouble, but with more notice there are options," Brown wrote in an article <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/an-asteroid-just-buzzed-past-earth-and-we-barely-noticed-in-time">for The Conversation</a>.&#xa0;One of those options is to launch an object into space to ram the incoming space rock head-on. Another involves what's called a gravity tractor: It would involve sending a spacecraft to fly alongside an asteroid for a long period of time - years to decades, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/asteroid-grand-challenge/mitigate/gravity-tractor">according to NASA</a> - and slowly pull it away from its Earth-bound path.But for this tractor plan to work, scientists would need to know about NEOs years ahead. And to give that kind of notice, researchers at space agencies like NASA would have to make asteroid-detection work a bigger priority."We don't have to go the way of the dinosaurs," Australian astronomer Alan Duffy <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/?utm_term=.68769f07439a">told the Post</a>. "We actually have the technology to find and deflect certainly these smaller asteroids if we commit to it now."<div> <a href="https://gfycat.com/marvelousgraciouscommongonolek">via Gfycat</a></div>

A 'city-killer' asteroid got scarily close to Earth yesterday, and astronomers didn't know about it until it was just days away

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A large asteroid is set to pass by the Earth on Saturday in a once-in-a-decade event.</li><li>The asteroid will pass between Earth and the moon's orbit, bringing it relatively close.</li></ul>A large asteroid is set to zoom past the Earth on Saturday at an unusually close distance, putting it closer to the planet than the moon.The newly discovered space rock, named <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=2023%20DZ2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 DZ2</a>, is expected to safely fly by on Saturday, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch/status/1638199889690521600?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>. The asteroid is expected to travel at speeds faster than 17,400 miles per hour and have a diameter between 140 feet to 310 feet, or around the size of a small skyscraper. "While close approaches are a regular occurrence, one by an asteroid of this size (140-310 ft) happens only about once per decade, providing a unique opportunity for science," NASA said.<a href="https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch/status/1638199889690521600" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>The asteroid is expected to pass by around 108,000 miles away from the Earth, which is a little closer than half way between the planet and the moon.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-venus-conjunction-planets-align-sky-how-where-when-see-2023-2?inline-endstory-related-recommendations=">NASA</a> said astronomers with the International Asteroid Warning Network, a group of organizations that tracks and plans for the risk of an asteroid impact, are studying DZ2 to help with planetary defense if an asteroid threat was ever discovered.The asteroid will be closest to Earth at around 3:50 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, according to <a href="https://earthsky.org/space/200-ft-asteroid-2023-dz2-will-pass-by-earth-closer-than-the-moon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EarthSky</a>. The asteroid may be visible through small telescopes. The best chance of seeing it is on Friday night from the Northern Hemisphere. EarthSky said its close proximity to Earth may make it appear like a "slow-moving star."The asteroid is also passing by days before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/when-how-see-planetary-alignment-five-planets-visible-march-sky-2023-3">five planets</a> — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars — are expected to align with the moon and form a great arc across the night sky in a rare cosmic event.

An asteroid nearly the size of a skyscraper will whiz between the Earth and the moon on Saturday in a once-in-a-decade event

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second moon that Earth has captured in its orbit this month is an asteroid called 2024 PT5.</li><li>Mini-moons like this could be ideal targets for asteroid mining to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">send humans deeper into space</a>.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-moon-orbiting-earth-when-why-what-to-know-2024-9 ">second moon that Earth now has for two months</a> may seem like just a fun curiosity, but it's also a sneak peek at a future space industry that could change our global economy.An asteroid called 2024 PT5, which normally orbits the sun as part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">captured in Earth's orbit</a> on Sunday, according to astronomers' projections. Astronomers expect it to spend about 57 days traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path around Earth before rejoining its asteroid belt.For those 57 days, the school-bus-sized <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">asteroid</a> will be a "natural satellite" of Earth — basically another, temporary moon.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113817839" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>That makes it economically intriguing. "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">Mini-moons</a>" like this are ideal targets for mining, according to Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the scientists who charted 2024 PT5's path around our planet.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">Asteroid mining</a> could someday help humans travel further out into the cosmos and extend our presence through the solar system. That's because some asteroids contain valuable metals like iron or platinum, as well as water.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's vision of a city on Mars</a>, for example, depends on asteroid mining. Temporary moons like 2024 PT5 could be a key stepping stone."Mini-moons are very important for the nascent global <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space economy</a>," Marcos told Business Insider in an email. Because they come so close to Earth and take a sojourn in our orbit, he added, "they are among the objects easier to reach using low-cost missions."<h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.But some asteroids contain so much metal that they're <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">worth more than our entire global economy</a>.Take Psyche, for example, an asteroid that NASA is sending a spacecraft to for scientific study, since the agency believes it to be the core of a long-dead planet.Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.<div type="image" title="graphic of what the asteroid is thought to look like" height="900" width="1600" msid="113817842" hostid="261" sizebytes="175866"></div>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.Nobody has mined an asteroid yet, though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">NASA punched one</a> in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.Some startups are trying to figure out how to start mining space rocks, and do it in a cost-effective way. Flying to an asteroid isn't cheap.One of them, called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">AstroForge, has launched a small probe with SpaceX</a>, though the spacecraft wasn't able to conduct the testing they'd planned, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/asteroid-mining-astroforge-docking-mission-2025">Space.com</a>. The company is now planning two more missions, which it hopes will culminate in its first landing on a metallic asteroid in 2025.<h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2>Long-distance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">deep-space missions</a>, especially if they're carrying humans and cargo, will have a fuel problem.Fuel is heavy, so the less of it you have to load onto a spacecraft the better. On the long flight to Mars or other planets, asteroids could become gas stations.That's because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/506/1/L6/6298231?login=false">research</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JE005584">suggests</a> that many asteroids in Earth's neighborhood are rich in water, which can be mined and split into its elementary components — hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are critical for making rocket fuel.Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.It takes an immense amount of rocket fuel to escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull. But little asteroids don't have much gravity, making it easy to leapfrog off of them."It only takes a puff of fuel to leave the mini-moon and head back towards Earth," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/undiscovered-minimoons-may-orbit-earth-could-they-help-us-become-an-interplanetary-species">Live Science</a>.<h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2>One problem with mini-moons is that scientists sometimes don't see them coming until a few weeks before they're captured in our planet's orbit.Asteroid 2024 PT5, for example, was first identified as a mini-moon in early September and will only be in Earth's orbit for about 57 days.That's a tight timeline for preparing and launching a mining mission. For any asteroid, "you need to learn enough about it to know whether it's worth sending a rocket up," Kareta said.Asteroid-mining companies can work around that by having mining spacecraft ready in Earth's orbit, waiting for the right space rock to zoom by, Marcos said."Either if you are thinking about collecting mineral samples for research or starting a space mining venture, mini-moons are your best bet to get your business off the ground," he said.

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA says it's under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft to study a valuable asteroid.</li><li>The asteroid is thought to be made up of $10 quintillion worth of gold, iron, and nickel.</li></ul>NASA <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-psyche-mission-enters-home-stretch-before-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> Tuesday that it was under 100 days away from launching a spacecraft designed to study an asteroid potentially worth $10 quintillion.The space agency's Jet Propulsion Lab said it had recently completed a comprehensive test of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft. That cleared a key hurdle that caused the probe to miss its original 2022 launch date.The 173-mile-wide asteroid is known as 16 Psyche and is thought to be made up of gold, iron, and nickel. The ore on the asteroid has been estimated to be worth about $10 quintillion. NASA announced in 2020 that it would <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51858259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaborate with Elon Musk's SpaceX</a> to reach the metal-rich body.The 2015 US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act gives companies the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">legal right to the materials mined</a> from celestial bodies. And firms have already sprung up to test technology that could theoretically make this work.Meanwhile, NASA's mission is scientific and geared toward learning more about planetary cores and how planets form. The spacecraft is set to launch in October on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket before heading on a six-year trek to the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.The satellite would then orbit the asteroid for 26 months, studying and photographing the body to learn its history and mineral composition.While NASA focuses on 16 Psyche, the agency previously said that the belt it resided in was full of ore-rich asteroids worth $700 quintillion. The most valuable asteroid in the belt, Davida, is thought to be worth $27 quintillion.Though a potentially lucrative business for the future, the inflow of valuable minerals from space may not actually <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/asteroids-contain-metals-worth-quintillions-of-dollars-but-mining-them-wont-necessarily-make-your-richer-than-bezos-or-musk/articleshow/83989878.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produce a bunch of billionaires</a>. That's because a sudden supply glut would drive metal prices down.

An asteroid loaded with $10 quintillion worth of metals edges closer to US reach

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers have uncovered fragments of a 6-foot-wide <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> that struck <keyword id="6489982" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="botswana">Botswana</keyword> in 2018.</li><li>According to a new study of those fragments, the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock originated from the <keyword id="1898611" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Asteroid-belt">asteroid belt</keyword>.</li><li>Scientists estimate the asteroid's journey across the solar system took nearly 23 million years. </li></ul>In the early hours of June 2, 2018, astronomers at the University of Arizona saw a faint dot of light moving across the sky.It was an asteroid, which loomed larger and larger as it approached Earth. A few hours later, the 6-foot-wide space rock - named 2018 LA - caught fire as it roared through the atmosphere at a blistering <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tiny-asteroid-discovered-saturday-disintegrates-hours-later-over-southern-africa">38,000 miles per hour</a>. It broke into tiny fragments that rained down across Botswana.A group of researchers raced to the end of that fireball's path to hunt for the rare fragments, since they held clues about the asteroid's origins. "This is only the second time we have spotted an asteroid in space before it hit Earth over land," Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, said <a href="https://www.seti.org/press-release/asteroid-hit-botswana-2018-likely-came-vesta">in a press release</a>.Jenniskens' team eventually found 23 pieces of the asteroid in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. According to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/maps.13653">a new study</a> from the group, an analysis of those fragments showed that 2018 LA was actually a piece of a larger asteroid called <keyword id="1370560" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vesta">Vesta</keyword>, which is the brightest and second-largest asteroid in our solar system. By dating the elements inside the asteroid fragments, Jenniskens' team determined that the space rock had been traveling for nearly 23 million years after it broke off Vesta.<h2>'A national treasure of Botswana'</h2><div type="image" title="vesta fragment botswana 2018 LA" height="1908" width="1264" msid="82343666" hostid="261"></div>Jenniskens' team almost struck out in their first hunt for asteroid fragments. But five days in, on their last day searching in the game reserve, the group found their first meteorite just 100 feet from their camp. (Asteroids that reach Earth's surface are called <a href="https://meteorites.asu.edu/meteorites/meteorite-origins" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meteorites</a>.)It was just over an inch long and weighed 18 grams, he said. "The meteorite is named 'Motopi Pan' after a local watering hole," Mohutsiwa Gabadirwe, a researcher from the Botswana Geoscience Institute who co-authored the study, said in the release. "This meteorite is a national treasure of Botswana."During a second expedition in October 2018, the team found the other 22 meteorite pieces.<div type="image" title="asteroid belt vega" height="585" width="1041" msid="82343667" hostid="261"></div>The researchers analyzed the metal content and make-up of those fragments, and determined that they belong to a class of meteorites called Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites. This whole group likely originated from Vesta, in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.According to the study authors, one-third of all HED meteorites found on Earth broke off of Vesta nearly 23 million years ago, when it was struck by another space object. They think that's true of this asteroid, too.<div type="image" title="asteroid vesta" height="1001" width="1334" msid="82343669" hostid="261"></div>The fragments' composition also offers hints about Vesta's violent past. An examination of the minerals inside Motopi Pan suggest the rock melted and reformed twice: 4.6 billion years ago then 4.2 billion years ago. "Billions of years ago, two giant impacts on Vesta created a family of larger, more dangerous asteroids," Jenniskens said. "The newly recovered meteorites gave us a clue on when those impacts might have happened."

You Searched For "Asteroid Day" and got 11 results

How large asteroids must be to destroy a city, state, country, or the planet

Dave Mosher,Rob Ludacer,Rob L…

Another pair of asteroids is going to whiz past Earth on 14 September — Bigger, faster but further away

Prabhjote Gill

An asteroid hunter reveals how she finds the space rocks that could destroy earth

Ariel Schwartz

In a NASA simulation of an asteroid impact, scientists concluded they couldn't stop a space rock from decimating Europe

Aylin Woodward,Morgan McFall-…

Here's Why Astronomers Did Not Detect The Russia Meteor Ahead Of Time

Dina Spector

An asteroid was supposed to hit Earth in September — but astronomers can’t seem to find it

Prabhjote Gill

A 'city-killer' asteroid got scarily close to Earth yesterday, and astronomers didn't know about it until it was just days away

Aylin Woodward

An asteroid nearly the size of a skyscraper will whiz between the Earth and the moon on Saturday in a once-in-a-decade event

Kelsey Vlamis

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

An asteroid loaded with $10 quintillion worth of metals edges closer to US reach

Filip De Mott

A small asteroid that hit Botswana took 23 million years to get here from the asteroid belt, astronomers found

Aylin Woodward

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides