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<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA works with a worldwide coalition of astronomers to find and track dangerous asteroids.</li><li>In the event of an impending hazardous asteroid strike, NASA already has its plan in place to alert the public.</li></ul>When the Chicxulub impactor, a six-mile-wide asteroid, struck Earth 66 million years ago, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dinosaurs-going-extinct-before-asteroid-hit-earth-study-2021-6">dinosaurs had no warning</a>. If an asteroid that size hit Earth today, a shock wave two million times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb would flatten forests and trigger tsunamis. A seismic pulse equal to a magnitude 10 earthquake would crumble cities. And long after the impact, a cloud of hot dust, ash, and steam would blot out the sun, plunging the Earth into freezing cold. <div type="image" title="An artists depiction of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs" height="1449" width="2070" msid="107779797" hostid="261" sizebytes="373936"></div>But at least we'd probably know it was coming ahead of time. And if NASA has anything to say about it, we may even be able to prevent the apocalypse. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office is tasked with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-nasa-shouldnt-waste-time-moon-polls-say-2023-8">finding, tracking, and assessing the risk</a> associated with potentially hazardous asteroids in our solar system.“We definitely want to find all those before they find us,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nasa.gov/people/lindley-johnson/">Lindley Johnson</a>, Lead Program Executive for the Planetary Defense Coordination Office.To do that, NASA works with a global coalition of astronomers called the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN). Here’s what they would do if an apocalyptic asteroid strike was headed toward Earth. <h2>An international warning system </h2>In the event that a dangerous asteroid is headed toward Earth, IAWN has procedures in place to notify the public. First, the party members who detected the threat would share their observations across the IAWN network to verify their findings and assess the danger.Once all parties agree that Earth should brace for impact, NASA would send out an alert.“I don’t have a red phone on my desk or anything,” Johnson said. “But we do have formal procedures by which notification of a serious impact would be provided.”If the asteroid was headed toward the US, NASA would notify the White House, and the government would release a formal statement to the public. If it was big enough to pose an international threat, IAWN would notify the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs.<h2>Hunting for asteroids </h2>An asteroid is considered “<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-warns-asteroid-skyscraper-football-stadium-size-pass-earth-watch-2024-2">potentially hazardous</a>” if it is larger than roughly 460 feet across and intersects Earth’s orbit at a minimum distance of 0.5 astronomical units, which is half the distance between Earth and the sun. There are about 2,300 known potentially hazardous asteroids out there, and roughly 153 of them are larger than 0.6 miles across. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">That’s big enough to trigger a catastrophe if one struck Earth.</a>To find and track them, NASA and the other IAWN partners look for new asteroids in addition to tracking ones that have already been discovered. All their observations get compiled into a database at the Minor Planet Center.So far, IAWN has found over 34,000 near-Earth asteroids. With enough observational data, NASA can confidently predict their orbits at least a century into the future, Johnson said.There’s a slim chance that the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-predicts-exact-date-asteroid-hit-earth-atomic-bomb-bennu-2023-9">potentially hazardous Bennu asteroid</a> could hit Earth in 159 years, triggering an explosion equal to 24 nuclear bombs. But the odds of that happening are only about one in 2,700, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-provides-insight-into-asteroid-bennus-future-orbit">according to a 2021 study</a>.If Bennu does head toward Earth, NASA has a few tricks up its sleeve to defend our planet.<h2>Defending Earth</h2>Most of the time, IAWN catches oncoming asteroids long before they become an immediate threat to Earth, according to Johnson. But NASA would need at least five to 10 years of advanced notice to prevent the apocalypse from an approaching asteroid. In 2021, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-crashes-dart-spacecraft-into-asteroid-to-test-planetary-defense-2022-9">NASA launched its first planetary defense test mission</a>. It rammed an uncrewed spacecraft into an asteroid to shift its orbit away from Earth.<div type="image" title="An illustration of a spacecraft flying in front of an asteroid" height="1376" width="2180" msid="107779800" hostid="261" sizebytes="184652"></div>The mission was a success, and NASA <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">plans to test more deflection techniques</a> in the future. A developing “gravity tractor” technique would send a spacecraft to stay in position next to the asteroid and allow the gravitational interaction to pull the asteroid out of its orbit. NASA is also working on a technique that uses an ion beam to shift an asteroid's course.But if the threat was coming in less than five years, NASA wouldn’t have time to deflect the asteroid. Then, it might resort to destruction to minimize and disperse the impact.If NASA only had a few months of warning, then <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">there’s not much it could do to save Earth</a>.Thankfully, IAWN’s strategy is to find asteroids decades, if not centuries, before the impact. “That gives us plenty of time to then try to do something about them while they’re still in space, so that we completely avoid any catastrophe here on Earth,” Johnson said.

NASA explains how it would alert the public of an apocalyptic asteroid strike 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists built the largest digital camera ever, weighing 3 tons with a 5-foot lens, for astronomy.</li><li>The LSST camera is designed to take thousands of 3,200-megapixel images of the entire southern sky.</li></ul>The world's largest digital camera is finally complete in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ghost-particles-neutrinos-fermilab-dune-tunnels-south-dakota-2024-2">laboratory</a> in Menlo Park, California.The SUV-sized Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cameras-left-in-glacier-legendary-explorer-found-85-years-later-2022-10">Camera</a> weighs about 6,200 pounds — roughly 3 metric tons — and its front lens is more than 5 feet wide.<div type="image" title="person in white jumpsuit wearing medical gloves appears faint taking selfie in a mosaic of blue green and yellow tiles inside a reflective lens inside a circle of mechanical gear with a gold circular frame around it" height="1500" width="2000" msid="109013691" hostid="261"></div>The LSST camera has to be that big to achieve its mission of taking a 10-year digital survey of the entire southern sky, scanning the whole area every few nights, eventually creating the largest <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-black-hole-milky-way-center-2019-10">astronomical movie</a> ever."No one has ever looked at so much of the universe so frequently," Aaron Roodman, the deputy director of Rubin Construction for SLAC and camera-program lead, told Business Insider.LSST isn't just a fun project to break records, though. Among its breakthrough science goals, the camera can also track down large, city-killer-sized asteroids so that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-simulation-reveals-need-years-of-warning-2021-5">NASA can identify any space rocks that might threaten Earth</a>.The camera's heft will also help investigate the mysterious dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hunt-for-dark-matter-begins-in-old-gold-mine-underground-2022-7">dark matter</a> that fills our universe and puzzles scientists.Scientists and engineers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory built this leviathan lens over two decades at an approximate cost of $168 million.Finally, it's complete, ready to ship off to the Rubin Observatory in Chile, high in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/peru-drug-laced-beers-helped-ancient-empire-prosper-wari-2022-1">Andes mountains</a>. Engineers plan to mount it to the observatory later this year.<div type="image" title="rubin observatory white boxy building with telescope dome in a driveway sitting on top of a mountain with brown mountains surrounding" height="1500" width="2061" msid="109013693" hostid="261"></div><h2>A full-sky panorama, but 10 years long</h2>Photos from the LSST camera will contain 3,200 megapixels.One megapixel is one million pixels. An ultra-high-definition, or 4K, TV can only display about 8 megapixels. To show an image from the LSST camera in its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/high-resolution-photo-lets-you-zoom-in-on-peoples-faces-2018-12">full resolution</a>, you would need hundreds of ultra-HD TVs."Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon," Roodman <a target="_blank" href="https://phys.org/news/2024-04-slac-largest-digital-camera-built.html">said</a> in a press release.<div type="image" title="The first full moon of the year seen in Lisbon in January 2024." height="1400" width="2100" msid="109013695" hostid="261"></div>The LSST is designed to take about 1,000 images each night, stitching them together to make one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">extremely detailed image</a> of the entire southern sky every few nights. Over 10 years, and tens of thousands of images, it should have what researchers call a 3D movie of the universe."This method allows us to observe changes in more than 20 billion galaxies, tracking both their movements and how they change," Travis Lange, the deputy project manager of the SLAC LSST team, said in a video on the project last month.<div type="image" title="galaxies stars in infrared jwst" height="2856" width="2799" msid="109013698" hostid="261"></div>Because of its diligence, the LSST should be able to capture all kinds of cosmic events in real time.<h2>Catching the universe red-handed</h2>Ultra-sensitive space observatories such as the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/times-nasa-webb-space-telescope-spotted-something-hubble-missed">James Webb Space Telescope</a> have scheduled times to point at specific objects and aren't always able to make a last-minute pivot toward emerging supernovas or interstellar visitors passing through our solar system.<div type="image" title="image of the colorful nebula in space" height="1307" width="1500" msid="109013700" hostid="261"></div>The LSST won't have to pivot at all. If something is happening in the southern sky, this giant camera should spot it as it surveys the whole area.That's what will allow the new camera to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-dart-mission-cant-protect-earth-without-surveilling-asteroids-2022-9">discover asteroids in our galactic neighborhood</a> that may have so far flown undetectedr."We'll be able to see things smaller than other telescopes have seen," Roodman told BI. "And since we're surveying so quickly, we really do expect to see a lot of what's out there."The LSST is also designed to alert astronomers whenever it identifies something new or changing in the sky. That gives astronomers the chance to turn their telescopes to observe new supernovae, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/two-supermassive-black-holes-nearest-earth-merging-into-monster-astronomers-2021-12">black-hole mergers</a>, and other astronomical phenomena in every wavelength of light, gathering the most data ever about these dynamic events.The survey is also likely to uncover <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vanishing-radio-signals-mystery-objects-in-milky-way-galaxy-center-2022-1">new types of deep-space objects and events</a>, Roodman said.<h2>Hunting for dark clues</h2>The LSST's ability to track galaxies' changes over a decade will also give scientists fresh insight into how the universe has evolved over time. That's key to understanding dark energy and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dark-matter-map-universe-galaxies-cosmic-voids-2021-5">dark matter</a>."Dark energy" is the name scientists have given to the mysterious force that causes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/universe-expansion-crisis-cosmology-new-physics-hubble-constant-2019-10">the universe to expand ever faster</a>. Dark matter is some type of matter that takes up space and has mass but doesn't seem to interact with light.Together, dark energy and matter make up most of the universe, and nobody knows what they are. The LSST could help find clues."If you <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-telescope-question-mark-space-galaxies-colliding-2023-8">look at one galaxy</a>, you can't tell anything. But if you look at hundreds of millions or billions — and we will look at billions of galaxies — you can see patterns across the sky," Roodman said. "You can see the imprint of how matter is distributed in the universe."

Scientists built a 3-ton camera with a 5-foot-wide lens to discover hazardous asteroids that NASA can't see

<ul><li>Four asteroids are scheduled to fly past the planet today, and three of them are as big as aeroplanes. </li><li>The four asteroids will be approaching the planet within hours of each other. </li><li>The smallest of the four will only be a million kilometres from Earth. </li></ul>Four asteroids are scheduled to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-earth-this-year/articleshow/70686096.cms">approach Earth</a> within hours of each other today — and three of them are the size of planes. Asteroid (2019 XB), (2019 WT3) and (2019 WO2) — between 30 to 60 meters in size — will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-was-supposed-to-hit-earth-in-september-but-astronomers-cant-seem-to-find-it/articleshow/70270747.cms">harmlessly</a> zip past the planet, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/">Asteroid Watch</a>. The fourth space object, Asteroid (2019 XY) was first spotted by astronomers on 3 December 2019. It’s smaller than the rest and it will be the first to fly by. Measuring only 8.7 meters — about the size of the bus — its approach will be closer than the rest, a mere million kilometres from Earth. Even though that’s around three times as far as the Moon — it’s in Earth’s next-door neighbourhood astronomically. This the closest Asteroid (2019 XY) is ever going to get to Earth. Data with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (<a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20XY;old=0;orb=0;cov=0;log=0;cad=1#cad">JPL</a>) shows that its next flyby is scheduled in 2145 — and the asteroid will be considerably further away. Six hours later Six hours after the first fly-by, Asteroid (2019 XB) — the biggest of the four at 65 meters— will be closing in on the planet. Even though it’s nearly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/asteroid-hitting-earth-and-ending-life-has-to-be-bigger-than-the-one-that-killed-dinosaurs/articleshow/70893317.cms">six times bigger</a> than its predecessor, it will also be six times as far away. Other asteroids earlier this year — which were the same size, like Asteroid (2019 GA) and (2015 HM10) — were significantly closer. The asteroid’s bigger size also implies that it will be travelling slower. Where Asteroid (2019 XY) will be blasting through space at 13.0 kilometres per second (kmps), Asteroid (2019 XB) will only be travelling at half the speed — at 7.93 kmps. Four hours later After four more hours, another plane-sized asteroid — Asteroid (2019 WT3) — will whiz past Earth at 11.04 kmps. But, it doesn’t pose a threat as it is 3.7 million kilometres away from Earth. Asteroid (2019 WG3), which is nearly the same size as Asteroid (2019 WT3), was going a lot faster when it flew past Earth at nearly the same distance on 12 November 2019. Asteroid (2019 EN) was also flying <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/asteroid-flying-faster-than-a-bullet-will-shoot-past-earth-today/articleshow/71610214.cms">markedly faster</a> — despite being thrice the size — when it passed the Earth at on 27 March 2019, at a distance of 3.7 million kilometres. Five hours to the finale The final asteroid of the day, Asteroid (2019 WO2), will be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-discovered-a-week-ago-will-be-flying-closest-to-earth-tonight/articleshow/70992905.cms">flying closer to Earth</a> than its predecessor and at around the same speed as the second visitor, Asteroid (2019 XB). The only other asteroids to fly past the planet at a distance of 1.8 million kilometres within the past year were moderately smaller. Though some, like the Asteroid (2019 CA3), zoomed past at speeds reaching 19.25 kmps — considerably faster than Asteroid (2019 WO2)’s 7.54 kmps. While these asteroids might not seem like much of a threat, a 300-metre asteroid is scheduled to approach Earth on 20 December 2019 followed by a 400-metre object on 26 December 2019. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/asteroid-gets-caught-changing-colours-for-the-very-first-time/articleshow/70942978.cms">Asteroid gets caught changing colours for the very first time</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/ufologist-claims-the-god-of-chaos-asteroid-will-strike-somewhere-over-europe/articleshow/71537022.cms">Ufologist claims the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid will strike somewhere over Europe</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">It might not be 'dinosaur destroying' but it's only a matter of time before an asteroid hits Earth</a>

Asteroids the size of planes will fly past Earth today, within hours of each other

<ul><li>A few hours after Valentine’s Day comes to an end, an asteroid as big as the <keyword id="1063158" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Golden-Gate-Bridge">Golden Gate Bridge</keyword> is set to fly past Earth. </li><li>Asteroid 2020 PZ 39 will be flying at 54,684 kilometres an hour. </li><li>The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) does not believe the asteroid will crash into the planet. </li></ul>One of the biggest asteroids of the year is set to fly by the Earth a day after Valentine’s. More than half-a-kilometre wide, Asteroid 2020 PZ39 is as big as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco — and twice as wide Lodha The Park, the tallest building in India. While it seems like a doomsday revelation, there’s only a small chance that the asteroid will actually hit Earth. According to the Center of Near Object Studies (<a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">CNEOS</a>), the asteroid should peacefully pass by at a distance of 2.2 billion kilometres. It is classified as a potentially hazardous object, flying at 54,684 kilometres an hour, but if there was any chance of a collision with the planet — CNEOS would have issued an alert. Why do people worry about asteroids? It’s not unnatural for people to worry about asteroids. Movies like Deep Impact, Armageddon and even the animated The Good Dinosaur are stoked anxieties about what could happen if <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">an asteroid were to actually hit Earth. </a> The last time any space rock managed to crash to Earth — and not burn up on entry — was in 2013 in the case of Chelyabinsk meteor. The resulting impact damaged 500 square kilometres, destroyed 7,200 buildings and injured over 1,400 people. Scientists are concerned about an extinction-level asteroid hitting the planet. According to archaeologists, there was a collision around 66 million years ago between Earth and a space object about 10 kilometres wide. It produced the Chicxulub crater and is widely believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Asteroids are stronger than we think they are Even though the chance of collision is marginal in the near future, most experts believe it’s only a matter of time before another extinction-level threat from space has a chance wipes out humans next. While trying to figure out how to destroy an asteroid before it hits Earth, scientists at discovered that the space rocks are stronger and harder to destroy than they previously assumed. "We used to believe that the larger the object, the more easily it would break — because bigger objects are more likely to have flaws. Our findings, however, show that asteroids are stronger than we used to think and require more energy to be completely shattered," said Charles El Mir from <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-03-asteroids-stronger-harder-previously-thought.html">Johns Hopkins University</a>, who made the discovery. Nonetheless, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is working on asteroid mitigation strategies that include better tracking and the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) to deflect any incoming objects. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-pose-a-threat-to-earth-in-2020/articleshow/73054066.cms">The 10 biggest asteroids that pose a threat to Earth in 2020</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasas-lucy-is-going-to-travel-4-billion-miles-to-explore-seven-trojan-asteroids-and-an-asteroid-moon/articleshow/73189625.cms">NASA's 'Lucy' is going to travel 4 billion miles to explore seven Trojan asteroids — and an asteroid Moon</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/asteroids-the-size-of-planes-will-fly-past-earth-today-within-hours-of-each-other/articleshow/72432901.cms">Asteroids the size of planes will fly past Earth today, within hours of each other</a>

An asteroid as big as the San Francisco bridge is set to whizz past Earth after Valentine’s Day

<ul><li>Three asteroids — 2019 RX1, 2019 QZ3 and 2019 RG2 — are going to be flying past Earth today.</li><li>Asteroid 2019 RG2's close approach to Earth will be uncomfortably close at 500,000 kilometers.</li><li>Asteroid 2019 RG2 will also be moving at record speeds of 79,164 kilometers per hour.</li></ul>Three asteroids are scheduled to fly past Earth today — and one of them is going to come as close as half a million kilometers from the surface. This is the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">closest any asteroid</a> will get to Earth over the next three months. A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-discovered-a-week-ago-will-be-flying-closest-to-earth-tonight/articleshow/70992905.cms">single asteroid</a> flying past Earth isn't an anomaly — it happens on a daily basis. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/two-asteroids-bigger-than-the-japan-tsunamis-are-coming-eerily-close-to-earth-today/articleshow/70870605.cms">Two asteroids</a> whizzing past the planet is a tad rarer, as it happens only once a month or so. Three asteroids on the same day, on the other hand, is exceptionally rare. Today, asteroids <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20RX1">2019 RX1</a>, <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20QZ3">2019 QZ3</a> and <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20RG2">2019 RG2</a> will be making their visit close to Earth. Aside from the fact that there will be three asteroids gunning for the planet, it's even rarer for one to get this close. Most asteroids that approach the Earth are normally at least two million kilometers away. But 2019 RG2 will be a mere 524,000 kilometers away from our planet. Why size matters All three asteroids are extremely small. Asteroid 2019 QZ3 is the biggest of the three with a diameter of 38 meters, but that's only as big as the Lotus Temple in Delhi. 
 
 <div type="image" title="Lotus_Temple_at_Night_edited" msid="71042307" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>




 Asteroid 2019 RX1 is smaller and only 28 meters in diameter — about the size of the Gateway of India in Mumbai. 
 
 <div type="image" title="Gateway_of_India_(13985936311)_edited" msid="71042355" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Gateway of India in Mumbai&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>





 2019 RG2, which will be the closest to Earth, is the smallest. It's only 11 meters in size — twice the height of an average human being. Fast and furious Because 2019 RG2 is so small, it will travel at extremely fast at speed of 79,164 kilometers per hour. This will make it the second fastest asteroid to fly past Earth in September — and even October and November. In comparison, asteroid RX1 will be travelling at nearly half the speed of 47,988 kilometers. 2019 QZ 3, the slowest of the three, will be at a mere 26,892 kilometers. The only asteroid that will be faster is the one scheduled to whizz past Earth on 24 September 2019 at a speed of 80,136 kilometers per hour. But it will be much further away — 4 million kilometers away. None of the three asteroids are on a collision course with Earth, as no alert has been issued by the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). Nonetheless, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory classified them as ‘potentially hazardous' and put them on <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/">Asteroid Watch</a>. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-earth-this-year/articleshow/70686096.cms">The 10 biggest asteroids that could crash into Earth in 2019</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/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year</a>

It’s a record day for asteroids as three of them plan to fly past Earth

After filing a lawsuit against the Israel-based company <keyword id="3598670" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="nso-group" source="Orion">NSO Group</keyword>, the developer of infamous <keyword id="6389936" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pegasus" source="Orion">Pegasus</keyword> spyware, the tech giant has started sending threat notification alerts to victims of state-sponsored hackers, beginning with Thailand, El Salvador and Uganda. At least six Thai activists and researchers who have been critical of the government have received the notification, reports <keyword id="179988" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="techcrunch" source="Orion">TechCrunch</keyword>. The alerts have also been sent to a number of users in El Salvador. Norbert Mao, the president of the Democratic Party in Uganda, tweeted late on Wednesday: "When you wake up to a threat notification from @Apple that your <keyword id="6354606" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iphone" source="Orion">iPhone</keyword> is being targeted then you know that cyber terrorism from state sponsored cyber terrorists is real." The alert from <keyword id="6354427" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="apple" source="Orion">Apple</keyword> warned that the company believes "you are being targeted by state-sponsored attackers who are trying to remotely compromise the iPhone associated with your Apple ID". "These attackers are likely targeting you individually because of who you are or what you do. If your device is compromised by a state-sponsored attacker, they may be able to remotely access your sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone. While it's possible this is a false alarm, please take this warning seriously," the Apple alert read. Tech giant Apple on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the NSO Group, seeking a permanent injunction to ban the Israeli company from using any Apple software, services or devices. Apple admitted that a small number of its users may have been targeted by a NSO Group's exploit to install Pegasus on Apple devices. "State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change," said <keyword id="600083" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="craig-federighi" source="Orion">Craig Federighi</keyword>, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. The Apple lawsuit also seeks redress for NSO Group's flagrant violations of the US federal and state law, arising out of its efforts to target and attack Apple and its users. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/youtuber-mrbeast-recreates-squid-game-with-a-prize-money-of-456000/articleshow/87904844.cms">YouTuber MrBeast recreates Squid Game with a prize money of $456,000</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasas-planetary-defense-system-the-mission-that-plans-to-defend-earth-from-asteroids-comets/slidelist/87903499.cms">NASA’s planetary defense system: The mission that plans to defend earth from asteroids, comets</a>

Apple is alerting Pegasus victims about state-sponsored snooping

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers have spotted a newly-referenced comet that is heading towards Earth. </li><li>The comet is likely to be so bright it could outshine our stars. </li></ul>A recently-spotted comet is expected to shine brighter than the stars in the night sky as it passes our planet, according to astronomers.<a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The comet, named C/2023 A3,</a> is hurtling toward the Earth at about 180,610 mph, per space.com. If all goes well, the comet, which last passed by the Earth about 80,000 years ago, will start being visible with the naked eye around October 2024, <a href="https://minorplanetcenter.net/mpec/K23/K23D77.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to data from the Minor Planet Center.</a>It could be as bright or brighter as our stars, and much more brilliant than the recent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-what-look-like-see-photos-2023-1">ZTF green comet</a> that passed the Earth last month. <h2>Brighter than the Green Comet</h2>C/2023 A3 is expected to reach a brightness magnitude between -0.7 and -5, per space.com. That technical term means it will potentially be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-venus-during-daytime-2013-12">as bright as Venus</a> in our night skies.By comparison, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-green-comet-science-explains-its-glow-2023-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">recent Green Comet ZTF</a> had a brightness of around magnitude +4.6 (the lower the magnitude, the brighter), per space.com.<div type="image" title="Comet ZTF is shown against the night sky." height="1500" width="2000" msid="98478948" hostid="261" sizebytes="266958"></div>That means C/2023 A3 has the potential to be at least about 100 times brighter than ZTF, and six times brighter than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">NEOWISE</a>, a comet that grazed the Earth in 2020, according to Ukrainian astronomy magazine The Universe. Space. Tech. But of course, these are just predictions, and a lot could happen to the comet before then.For one, the comet will have to survive the sun. The ball of gas, ice, and dust is now heading toward our star and it will have to survive its smoldering rays. The critical moment will be its perihelion — its closest approach to the sun — on September 24, 2024. Still, scientists are hopeful, according to <a href="https://universemagazine.com/en/main-comet-of-2024-gets-the-name/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Universe. Space. Tech.</a>, because the comet is expected to be quite large and its perihelion is far from the sun, about 36 million miles away. <h2>NASA keeps a close eye out for objects that graze the Earth</h2>C/2023 A3 was spotted on February 22 by the NASA-funded asteroid early detection system Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).The system, operated by the University of Hawaii, is made up of four telescopes placed in Hawaii, Chile, and South Africa. These automatically scan the sky to spot potential threats to Earth coming from the sky. NASA keeps a close eye on near-Earth objects that could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/planet-killer-asteroid-could-threaten-earth-in-a-few-millennia-2022-10?r=US&amp;IR=T">hurt our planet,</a> but it doesn't always catch them this early.For instance, NEOWISE was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">spotted only three months before</a> it passed by the Earth in 2020. On that occasion, we were lucky and the comet only passed our planet, offering spectacular vistas to onlookers. C/2023 A3, however, isn't expected to be a planetary threat. Astronomers think it will pass about 0.5 Astronomical Units, or 44 million miles, from our planet.

A bright comet is heading towards Earth and could outshine the stars in the sky, say astronomers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists have spotted the brightest-ever explosion recorded in the cosmos. </li><li>The explosion, AT2021lwx, has been ongoing for around three years.</li></ul>Scientists have spotted the biggest cosmic explosion ever recorded. This enormous fireball, which is about 8 billion light years away, is approximately 100 times bigger than the solar system.It is estimated to be two trillion times brighter than the sun, and about twice as hot as the surface of the sun, according to lead study author Philip Wiseman, an astronomer at the University of Southampton. "In just terms of physical size, it's just ginormous," Wiseman told Insider. It is not only very large, but also long-lasting. It has been spotted exploding for three years. Wiseman said the leading theory is that the explosion is caused by a supermassive black hole sending shock waves through a cloud of cosmic gas.<h2>An explosion on an unprecedented scale </h2><div type="image" title="A photomontage shows pictures taken at regular intervals showing the explosion evolve over time." height="1511" width="3024" msid="100183877" hostid="261"></div>When the Zwicky Transient Facility in California and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System telescopes first spotted the blast, they didn't pay it much attention, said Wiseman. These telescopes, which survey the sky for comets or asteroids, see flashes from supernovae all the time. But these flashes usually die out within a couple of months. This flash lasted for more than three years. When Wiseman and his team made calculations to figure out just how big the explosion was, "we were just blown away," he said. <div type="image" title="A gif shows pictures taken at regular intervals showing the explosion evolve over time." height="416" width="833" msid="100183882" hostid="261"></div>The blast, called AT2021lwx, is ten times brighter than any supernova and three times brighter than a tidal disruption event, which is when a star falls into a black hole.The explosion is expected to continue to shine for at least another couple of years, meaning it is extremely long-lasting, Wiseman said.While it's not the brightest flash ever seen, it is "by far the most energy released" from a single explosion, Wiseman added. <h2>This may be a black hole slurping up a cloud of gas and dust</h2><div type="image" title="A yellow ring shows a black hole outlined by a bright yellow ring of dust being burnt up." height="573" width="765" msid="100183886" hostid="261"></div>There are two leading theories to explain this blast. One is that it is a star being shredded by a black hole.But for a blast of this size to happen, the black hole would have to be enormous and the star extremely energetic.The likelihood of two such objects meeting during the lifetime of that type of star is extremely small and the analysis of the light coming from the blast suggests this isn't what is happening, said Wiseman.The other theory, which is the most probable at this point, is that a supermassive black hole is gobbling up its cloud of gas and dust.Black holes are often surrounded by a ring of gas and dust. The theory is that the cloud has been knocked off of its orbit and is being absorbed by the black hole. As this is happening, shock waves are spreading through the cloud, heating it up the matter in the cloud and shooting out bright light. "It's like there's been one massive dump of material onto a black hole, completely isolated from anything else, which has never really been seen before," said Wiseman. <h2>We may be witnessing the death of a galaxy</h2><div type="image" title="An artist's impression fo a galaxy around a quasar." height="2160" width="2880" msid="100183890" hostid="261"></div>Studying this event could teach us a lot about black holes. For instance, this event could provide clues about where light comes from when black holes are very bright, something that scientists are still puzzled by. Wiseman hopes this explosion might also inform how galaxies change and die.Theoretically, there's no reason for galaxies to stop growing. Galaxies "should keep on forming new stars and keep on forming new stars, because there's a constant supply of gas from the cosmic web," he said."But at some point, a lot of galaxies die and just stop making new stars," and it's not clear why, he said. One theory is that explosions could emerge from the black hole to stop gas from falling into the black hole. It's possible that what we're seeing is one of those explosions. "This might be that this is how centers of galaxies are actually regulated and change over time," said Wiseman. "You need many of these over time to cumulatively build up the energy that is being blown out into the galaxy. On a time scale of millions of years, you can start actually blowing the galaxy to pieces," he said. Right now, the explosion is so bright that it's not possible to see a galaxy around the black hole. But as it dims, Wiseman hopes the galaxy will appear, shedding light on how galaxies regulate. In the coming years, the team is hoping to turn telescopes like Hubble and JWST to get a better look.

Astronomers spot the biggest cosmic explosion ever seen, and it's 100 times the size of our solar system

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvTA4k_L8pk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It's already Wednesday</a>. I'm Diamond Naga Siu and I really enjoy writing our newsletters, but Eve Upton-Clark's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hustle-generation-jobs-work-side-hustle-freelance-2023-5">latest Discourse story</a> has me thinking about side hustles. Eve examined how Gen Z has become the "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hustle-generation-jobs-work-side-hustle-freelance-2023-5">Hustle Generation</a>" by creating new side hustles and forging their own career paths. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-hustle-generation-jobs-work-side-hustle-freelance-2023-5">You can read it here</a>. Now, let's dive into today's tech.P.S. Insider is seeking nominations for the top experts in the creator economy: podcasters, newsletter writers, and more. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nominate-top-creator-economy-experts-2023-5">Send people our way here.</a>If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-in-tech">sign up here</a>. Download Insider's app <a href="https://link.insider.com/click/27645591.160803/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5zaWRlci5jb20vYXBwP25yX2VtYWlsX3JlZmVyZXI9MSZ1dG1fc291cmNlPVNhaWx0aHJ1JnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9T3BlbmluZ19iZWxs/62667762063d6b9bef0cffb3Bf9c9aa56" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-working-on-new-home-robot-burnham-chatgpt-like-features-2023-5"></a>1. Amazon's home robot Astro is getting an upgrade. The home-monitoring machine is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-working-on-new-home-robot-burnham-chatgpt-like-features-2023-5?r=US&amp;IR=T">about to get outfitted with ChatGPT-like technology</a>. Internal documents revealed that Amazon plans to make Astro "more intelligent, more useful, and conversational."<ul><li>The project is internally called "Burnham" and is the latest example of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-bedrock-aws-ai-chatgpt-dall-e-competitor-2023-4">Amazon's push to bring AI to its services and products</a>. Burnham could alert owners about a stove left burning or someone slipping. It can also call 911 in an emergency.</li><li>Infusing these capabilities into a robot takes advanced AI out of the digital sphere and into real-life settings. Internal documents signal that Amazon is pretty confident that this is a major upgrade to the home robot.</li><li>My colleague <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/eugene-kim">Eugene Kim</a> gives us a preview of Amazon's plans for Astro, which so far, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-insiders-already-worry-astro-home-robot-will-fail-2021-9">hasn't lived up to the company's expectations</a> (and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-layoffs-astro-home-robot-survives-email-2022-11">heavy investments</a>).</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-working-on-new-home-robot-burnham-chatgpt-like-features-2023-5">Meet Amazon's upgraded "junior family member" here.</a>In other news:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-ads-look-like-emails-in-middle-inbox-draw-complaints-2023-5"></a><div type="image" title="Gmail logo in a magnifying glass surrounded by Gmail hidden features 4x3" height="1750" width="2334" msid="100131438" hostid="261" sizebytes="212050"></div>2. You've got mail: Google is placing deceptive ads in Gmail. Ads were previously just at the top of the social and promotions tabs. But now, some are formatted like an email and embedded in inboxes. It "should be illegal," one person wrote. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-ads-look-like-emails-in-middle-inbox-draw-complaints-2023-5">More on the inbox ire here</a>.3. So, Mark Zuckerberg is shredded now. Gone are the days of a pasty, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-addresses-surfing-photo-sunscreen-leaked-audio-2020-9">sunscreen-slathered Zuckerberg</a>. He's now tanned, ripped, and winning jiu-jitsu matches. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-tan-shredded-jiu-jitsu-photos-2023-5">Check out his transformation here.</a>4. ChatGPT writes a 'Succession' finale scene. Screenwriting experts told Insider the chatbot's script was "garbage" and "insulting." It was a "straight-forward, happy ending with overly earnest dialogue" that failed to capture the characters' voices. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-ai-script-succession-finale-screenwriter-wga-reaction-amid-strike-2023-5">Read the script in full here.</a>5. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adini9A6QQA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Just Wanna Rock</a>: What size asteroid would destroy a city, state, country, or the planet? Most meteors are smaller than a car. But some larger ones can cause global extinctions. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-sizes-that-can-damage-cities-states-planet-2018-6">Size matters in this solar story here.</a>6. Tips from an OnlyFans creator who makes $30,000 per month off the platform. MelRose Michaels said the key to growing her platform was making safe-for-work content. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-onlyfans-creator-uses-safe-for-work-content-income-audience-2023-5">Check out her other tips here.</a>7. Amazon is offering $10 for you to pick up your own order. It's one of multiple retailers reconsidering free delivery amid rising delivery costs. Amazon has recently been trying different methods to combat the increased expenses. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-offers-shoppers-10-dollars-collect-items-whole-foods-kohls-2023-5">More on its latest strategy here.</a>8. China arrests man who used ChatGPT to generate fake news. Hong is the first person arrested under China's new law that prohibits misusing face and voice altering technology. He generated fake news about a train crash that killed nine people. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-ai-fake-news-tech-china-detains-man-2023-5">Get all the details here.</a>Odds and ends:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-earth-northern-southern-lights-auroras-how-to-see-2023-4"></a><div type="image" title="A picture from Riverton's national weather service in Wyoming shows purple and green northern lights shining behind a spherical structure in the foreground." height="922" width="1230" msid="100131442" hostid="261" sizebytes="28698"></div>9. Powerful solar storm is set to hit Earth on Wednesday. It could spark beautiful auroras. Plus, as the sun becomes more active, even more dazzling solar shows are expected in the coming months. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-earth-northern-southern-lights-auroras-how-to-see-2023-4">Here's how to check them out.</a>10. Russia's own version of NATO is crumbling. Some of its closest allies are frustrated by the war on Ukraine. A few of them have even started snubbing Putin, while others are afraid they could become Russian targets. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/csto-russia-equivalent-of-nato-crumbling-amid-failures-ukraine-war-2023-5">More on the tenuous alliance here.</a>What we're watching today:<ul><li><a href="https://io.google/2023/program/396cd2d5-9fe1-4725-a3dc-c01bb2e2f38a/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google's annual I/O developer conference</a> is today in Mountain View, California (and online). </li><li>Quarterly earnings for Groupon and other companies. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">Keep up with earnings here</a>.</li></ul>Curated by Diamond Naga Siu in San Diego. (Feedback or tips? Email <a href="mailto:dsiu@insider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dsiu@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="http://www.twitter.com/diamondnagasiu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@diamondnagasiu</a>) Edited by Shona Ghosh (tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/shonaghosh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@shonaghosh</a>) and Hallam Bullock (tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/hallam_bullock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@hallam_bullock</a>) in London.

10 Things in Tech: Amazon is offering money to pick up your order, ChatGPT writes a “Succession” scene, and tips from an OnlyFans creator

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Screenshot/TwitterCCTV footage from the South Australia Police Department shows the moment a meteor lit up the night sky.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>A NASA research center confirmed that a massive fireball landed on Tuesday in the Great Australian Bight just off the coast of South Australia. </li><li>People in parts of Victoria and South Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/suspected-meteor-spotted-across-the-sky-in-south-australia/11136648">reported</a> seeing large flashes of bright white light at around 10:30 pm on Tuesday.</li><li><a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/">The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies</a> in California confirmed that the bright light was actually an impressive fireball with a calculated impact energy of 1.6 kilotons of explosive power.</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>A NASA research center <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/">confirmed</a> that a massive fireball landed on Tuesday in the Great Australian Bight just off the coast of South Australia.<a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/">The Center for Near-Earth Object Studies</a> at the California Institute of Technology analyzes the impact time, location, and amount of energy generated by meteors and asteroids that approach earth. The research facility uses high-precision orbit solutions of the space objects to predict the risk of impact and supports NASA's <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview">Planetary Defense Coordination Office</a>. US government sensors have been monitoring fireballs - or "exceptionally bright meteors," <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/intro.html">as NASA explains</a> - since 1988. The chart below from the research center maps the location and impact energy of the brightest fireballs reported. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Centre for Near-Earth Objects StudiesA map of all fireballs reported by US Government sensors since 1988.</div></div></div><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">NASAFireball seen on Thursday night.</div></div></div>People in parts of Victoria and South Australia <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/suspected-meteor-spotted-across-the-sky-in-south-australia/11136648">reported</a> seeing large flashes of bright white light at around 10:30 pm local time on Tuesday.The center confirmed that the bright light was actually an impressive fireball with a calculated impact energy of 1.6 kilotons of explosive power. It traveled at a velocity of 11.5 kilometers per second (7 miles per second) and ultimately landed in the Great Australian Bight just off South Australia's coast. NASA engineer Dr Steve Chesley told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-23/nasa-says-meteor-soaring-to-earth-was-the-size-of-a-small-car/11141760">ABC Radio</a> that the meteor could have been the size of a small car when it hit the atmosphere, and it was actually traveling at a slower speed than most asteroids. Check out video captured by the South Australia Police Department which shows the exact moment the meteor lit up the night sky: <biembeddedobject id="114b1469-2b48-4eb7-9eb0-433a113ab2c7" style="width: 600px; height: 200px;" class="twitter mceNonEditable">Tweet Embed: //twitter.com/mims/statuses/1131024775483076608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Our CCTV in Mount Gambier captured this otherworldly fireball at 10.46pm Tuesday. Just in case, we'd ask that Limestone Coast locals be alert for Alien Life Forms (including ALF himself) trying to hitch-hike to Earth Capital, and approach with caution. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/meteor?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#meteor</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/weneedanALFemoji?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#weneedanALFemoji</a> <a href="https://t.co/iOgAOlw4cu">pic.twitter.com/iOgAOlw4cu</a></biembeddedobject> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tornadoes-more-us-than-anywhere-else-world-2019-5">The US has 1,200 tornadoes each year. That's 4 times as many as the rest of the world combined.</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Data from a NASA map confirms a bright meteorite landed just off the coast of South Australia

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11229">NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/JSC</a>An illustration of a field of orbital debris, or space junk, circling Earth.</div></div></div><ul><li>China's Tiangong-1 space station recently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-chinese-space-station-tiangong-1-crashed-2018-4">crashed to Earth</a> as a giant chunk of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/space-junk">space junk</a>.</li><li>But there are millions of small, hard-to-track bits of orbital debris that can collide with satellites.</li><li>In 2017, the US government logged 308,984 close calls with space junk and issued 655 "emergency-reportable" alerts to satellite operators.</li><li>Alert systems help avoid a runaway space-junk disaster, a phenomenon called the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-kessler-syndrome-chain-reaction-prevention-2018-3">Kessler syndrome</a> that could dramatically reduce human access to space.</li></ul>China's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tiangong">Tiangong-1</a> space station fell to Earth on April 2, raining debris over a patch of Pacific Ocean some 2,500 miles south of Hawaii.But Tiangong-1 is just the tip of the space-junk iceberg.There are about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-debris-amount-statistics-countries-2018-3">23,000 satellites</a>, rocket bodies, and other human-made objects larger than a softball in orbit. There may also be some 650,000 softball-to-fingernail-size objects and <a href="http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/04/Distribution_of_debris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">170 million bits of debris</a> smaller than the tip of a pen - stuff like flecks of paint and fragments of explosive bolts.There's a real risk that something may smash into something else up there, and it <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2009/02/12/kablam_satellite_collision_math_and_a_correction.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">often does</a>. Each piece of junk is screaming around our planet at roughly 17,500 mph, or 10 times faster than a bullet. Jack Bacon, a senior scientist at NASA in 2010, <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/05/ff_space_junk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Wired</a> that a hit by a 10-centimeter sphere of aluminum would be akin to detonating 7 kilograms of TNT.Avoiding such catastrophic collisions is vital to ensuring humans can still access space without have their hardware or spaceships whacked by debris.With space <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/starman-elon-musk-car-orbit-collision-risk-calculations-2018-2">exploration</a> and commerce about to boom, it's more important than ever to keep track of all the junk.Thankfully, the <a href="http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usspc-fs/space.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Space Surveillance Network</a> (SSN) does just that.<h2>Why space junk poses such a major threat</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://earthdata.nasa.gov/user-resources/sensing-our-planet/rubble-trouble">NASA</a>A piece of space debris punched this hole in space shuttle Endeavour's radiator.</div></div></div>Led by the US military, the SSN uses an global network of partners to identify, track, and share information about objects in space - especially any potential close calls."In 2017, we provided data for 308,984 events," Diana McKissock, a flight lead with the US Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron, which helps track space debris for the SSN, previously told Business Insider.The reason the SSN pays such close attention is that just one major collision can have huge ramifications. A crash would create even more debris, meaning there'd be a much greater chance of more collisions in the future.There's even a hypothetical, scientifically plausible, spiraling-out-of-control scenario with space junk called the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-kessler-syndrome-chain-reaction-prevention-2018-3">Kessler syndrome</a>.In a Kessler syndrome event, one collision begets other collisions, and quickly spreads debris in a catastrophic chain-reaction.A Kessler syndrome event could create an Asteroid Belt-like field of debris in large regions of space around Earth. Those zones could wind up being too risky to fly new satellites or spaceships into for <a href="https://www.iadc-online.org/Documents/IADC-2012-08,%20Rev%201,%20Stability%20of%20Future%20LEO%20Environment.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hundreds of years</a>, which would severely limit human access to the final frontier.A vivid example of the Kessler syndrome is in the movie "Gravity," in which an accidental space collision endangers a crew aboard a large space station.<h2>How dangerous space junk is found and tracked</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photo-gallery.html">NASA</a>The Haystack and HAX radars located in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. These radars collect 600 hrs of orbital debris data each per year and are NASA's primary source of data on centimeter-sized orbital debris.</div></div></div>Most space junk is found in two regions above the surface of our planet: in low-Earth orbit (about 250 miles up) and geostationary orbit (about 22,300 miles up).The SSN enlists the help of commercial companies and friendly governments around the world to keep tabs on it all. It uses about 30 different systems, and they come in four main flavors: satellites, optical telescopes, radar systems, and supercomputers.The radar observatories can see things in space even when it's daylight, which is crucial for frequent, almost real-time tracking. In fact, just before Tiangong-1 fell to Earth, a radar observatory managed to image the plunging spacecraft in impressive detail.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Fraunhofer FHRThe main body and the solar panels of the Tiangong-1 in a radar image.</div></div></div>Optical <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/darpa-sst-space-surveillance-telescope-space-junk-debris-monitoring-2016-11">telescopes on the ground</a> also keep an eye out, though they aren't always run by the government."The commercial sector is actually putting up lots and lots of telescopes," Jesse Gossner, an orbital-mechanics engineer who teaches at the US Air Force's Advanced Space Operations School, previously told Business Insider. The government then pays for their debris-tracking services.Gossner said one major debris-tracking company is called Exoanalytic. It uses about 150 small telescopes set up around the globe to detect, follow, and report space debris to the SSN.Then there are the satellites in space that track debris. Presumably these are optical telescopes, though less is known about them because they typically have top-secret military hardware.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Samantha Lee/Business Insider</div></div></div>Observation data from these systems is fed to supercomputers, which help calculate an orbit and check against a catalog of known space debris and orbits. If there's no match, the object is flagged and added to <a href="https://www.space-track.org/auth/login" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a list</a>.Crucially, the SSN supercomputers constantly check the orbits of all satellites and known bits of space junk to see if there's any risk of future collision days in advance.<h2>When the SSN warns the world about possible collisions</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Celestrak/Analytical Graphics, Inc.China destroyed its own FY-1C satellite in 2007, creating countless pieces of space junk, shown as red dots. Green dots show satellites in low-Earth orbit.</div></div></div>McKissock said the surveillance network issues two kinds of warnings to NASA, satellite companies, and other groups: basic and advanced.The SSN issues a basic emergency report to the public three days ahead of a 1-in-10,000 chance of a collision. It then provides multiple updates per day until the risk of a collision passes.To qualify for such reporting, a rogue object must come within a certain distance of another object. In low-Earth orbit, that distance must be less than 1 kilometer (0.62 mile); farther out in deep space, where the precision of orbits is less reliable, the distance is less than 5 kilometers (3.1 miles).Advanced emergency reports are more conservative, with wider safety margins, to help satellite providers see possible collisions much more than three days ahead. Those are the roughly 300,000 events noted by McKissock.Of these, "only 655 were emergency-reportable," she told Business Insider in an email.And of those 655 reportable emergencies, some 579 close calls were in low-Earth orbit, an area that's relatively crowded with high-value satellites.<h2>What satellite operators do if they get a collision alert</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/crashed-satellite-space-3d-scene-348838928">Shutterstock</a>An illustration of a satellite damaged by space debris.</div></div></div>When a space company receives a SSN alert, they typically move their satellite into a different orbit - and out of harm's way - by burning a little propellant.The biggest priority is avoiding damage to multi-million- or multi-billion-dollar satellites and keeping astronauts safe."It's just a matter of watching and, with our active satellites that we do control, avoiding collisions," Gossner said. "It becomes a very important problem not just for that satellite, but then for the debris that it would create."Fortunately, McKissock added, "our everyday concern isn't something as catastrophic as the Kessler syndrome."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/space-junk-orbiting-around-earth-conceptual-233084350">Shutterstock</a>A thick ring of space junk orbits Earth in this fanciful artist's concept of a "Kessler syndrome" event.</div></div></div>In Gossner's eyes, the best way to manage space junk isn't with high-tech space nets and other <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-scientists-hope-harpoons-can-skewer-space-junk-crisis-2018-4">debris-catching technologies</a>.Instead, he says it's most effective to find debris, track it, alert parties about possible collisions, and make sure companies and governments can eventually de-orbit any new things they launch in a controlled way. (That way, they won't further contribute to the problem.)For now, current tracking and warning efforts have led Gossner to believe we're not at risk of a Kessler event."I'm not saying we couldn't get there, and I'm not saying we don't need to be smart and manage the problem," he said. "But I don't see it ever becoming, anytime soon, an unmanageable problem." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-pacific-ocean-dead-satellites-2017-10">There's a place at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where hundreds of giant spacecraft go to die</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

The US government logged 308,984 potential space-junk collisions in 2017 - and the problem could get much worse

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on Tuesday strapped themselves inside a Russian Soyuz capsule and flew away from the International Space Station, landing at dawn in Kazakhstan.Station commander Jeff Williams, with NASA, and flight engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, both with Russia's Roscosmos agency, pulled away from the station at 5:51 p.m. EDT as the ships sailed 258 miles over eastern Mongolia, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.<div></div>"I will certainly miss this view!" Williams wrote on Twitter earlier on Tuesday, posting a picture of sunlight glinting off the planet.&#xa0;"Vast gratitude toward my crewmates, ground teams, supporting friends, and family."<div></div>The capsule made its&#xa0;parachute landing near the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan at 7:13 a.m. local time on Wednesday, which was 9:13 p.m. Tuesday&#xa0;on the East Coast.The mission comes the same day a US space probe was cleared for launch on Thursday to collect and return samples from an asteroid in hopes of learning more about the origins of life on Earth and perhaps elsewhere in the solar system, NASA said.Williams, 58, returns to Earth with a career total of 534 days in orbit, more time than any other astronaut in US history and 14th in the world.The Russians remain champions of long-duration spaceflight, with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka currently the world record-holder with 878 days in space over five missions.Before leaving the station, Williams turned over command of the $100 billion outpost, a project of 15 nations, to cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, who remains aboard the station with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Japan's Takuya Onishi."We'll be missing you here," Ivanishin said during a change-of-command ceremony on Monday. "Have fun riding though the atmosphere ... and have a very safe and exceptionally soft landing."A replacement crew is due to launch on Sept. 23 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.&#xa0;(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Sandra Maler) <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-explodes-launc-site-cape-canaveral-florida-2016-9">A SpaceX rocket just exploded on the launchpad</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hoamVuNTE6l94ncIqPAtTTnnLV24aPDX" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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