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A potentially hazardous giant asteroid is set to zoom past <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> with a 37,400 km/h speed on Thursday, according to <keyword id="6360409" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword>.<br /><br />The asteroid, named 418135 (2008 AG33), has an estimated diameter between 350 to 780 metres, revealed NASA's <keyword id="13734975" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="centre-for-near-earth-object-studies" source="Orion">Centre for Near Earth Object Studies</keyword> (CNEOS).<br /><br />NASA defines any space object that comes within 193 million km of Earth as a "near-Earth object" (NEO) and any fast-moving object within 7.5 million km as "potentially hazardous".<br /><br />According to the Centre, as they orbit the <keyword id="24879" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sun" source="Orion">Sun</keyword>, the NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth. However, it explained that a "close" passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.<br /><br />Asteroid 418135 is thus expected to skim past our planet without any risk of impact, <keyword id="1274891" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="live-science" source="Orion">Live Science</keyword> reported.<br /><br />At its closest point, the asteroid, travelling at more than 30 times the speed of sound, will come within about 3.2 million kilometres of Earth, which is roughly eight times the average distance between Earth and the Moon.<br /><br />Asteroid 418135 was first discovered on January 12, 2008, by asteroid surveyors at the Mt. <keyword id="13734974" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="lemmon-skycenter" source="Orion">Lemmon SkyCenter</keyword> observatory in Arizona and last zipped past Earth on March 1, 2015, according to CNEOS.<br /><br />The asteroid swings by our planet roughly every seven years, with the next close flyby predicted to come on May 25, 2029.<br /><br />But it may not be the biggest space rock to hurtle past Earth. Another asteroid, named 467460 (2006 JF42) is touted to be the biggest so far to zoom past Earth, the report said.<br /><br />The space rock has an estimated diameter between 380 to 860 metres and will be travelling at roughly 40,700 km/h when it passes Earth on May 9.<br /><br />Several space agencies are already working on ways to possibly deflect asteroids flying straight at Earth.<br /><br />Last November, NASA launched a spacecraft as a part of its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission, which plans to redirect a non-hazardous asteroid by ramming it off course.<br /><br />China is also in the early planning stages of an asteroid-redirect mission. By slamming 23 Long March 5 rockets into the asteroid Bennu, the country says it would be able to divert the space rock from a potentially catastrophic impact with Earth, the report said.<br /><br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/ola-may-be-rushing-into-electric-cars-when-scooters-continue-to-underperform/articleshow/91141264.cms"></a><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-will-now-allow-users-to-remove-personal-information-from-their-search-results/articleshow/91142502.cms">Google will now allow users to remove personal information from their Search results</a><br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/adani-enterprises-sets-up-a-wholly-owned-media-arm/articleshow/91128727.cms"></a><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/skywatching-on-april-30-venus-and-jupiter-will-look-like-they-are-about-to-collide/articleshow/91145254.cms">Skywatching on April 30: Venus and Jupiter will look like they are about to collide</a><br />

Potentially hazardous giant asteroid to skim past Earth on Thursday: NASA

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Screenshot/Twitter</span></p><p class="caption">CCTV footage from the South Australia Police Department shows the moment a meteor lit up the night sky.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>A NASA research center confirmed that a massive fireball landed on Tuesday in the Great Australian Bight just off the coast of South Australia. </strong></li><li><strong>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.</strong></li><li><strong><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.</strong></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>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.</p><p><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>. </p><p>US government sensors have been monitoring fireballs <span>- 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. </span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Centre for Near-Earth Objects Studies</span></p><p class="caption">A map of all fireballs reported by US Government sensors since 1988.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">Fireball seen on Thursday night.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>NASA engineer <span>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. </span><span></span></p><p>Check out video captured by the South Australia Police Department which shows the exact moment the meteor lit up the night sky: </p><biembeddedobject id="114b1469-2b48-4eb7-9eb0-433a113ab2c7" style="width: 600px; height: 200px;" class="twitter mceNonEditable">Tweet Embed: <br />//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1131024775483076608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw <br />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><p> </p>     <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

<ul><li>The Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) predicts that a 4 kilometer wide asteroid is going to fly awfully close to the Earth in 2020.<br /></li><li>The asteroid 1998 OR2 could also get pushed into a collision course directly for Earth because of the Yarkovsky effect and gravitational keyholes.<br /></li><li>The massive asteroid could have devastating effects if it were to fall to Earth.<br /></li></ul>An asteroid that stretches for four kilometers, half the of Mount Everest’s height, could be on a collision for Earth in less than a year. <br /><br />National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (<a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?des=1998%20OR2">CNEOS</a>) estimates that the asteroid, dubbed at 1998 OR2, will be around 6.3 million kilometers from the Earth’s core when it passes by on 29 April 2020.<br /><br />But, there’s a chance that it will be much closer — and even on a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">direct collision course</a> with Earth — if there’s any nudge to the asteroid’s current trajectory.<br /><br /><strong>What can push the asteroid to Earth?</strong><br /><br />There are two main factors in space that can <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-city-killer-asteroid-got-scarily-close-to-earth-yesterday-and-astronomers-didnt-know-about-it-until-it-was-just-days-away/articleshow/70404032.cms">affect the orbit</a> of an asteroid — one, the Yarkovsky effect and two, a gravitational keyhole. And, both, could either push the asteroid closer to Earth or, if one is lucky, further away. <br /><br />The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-Are-Planning-Dramatic-Ways-To-Stop-An-Asteroid-Collision/articleshow/21343800.cms">Yarkovsky effect</a>, simply put, is when an asteroid gets pushed around by sunlight. The effect of light hitting an asteroid is minute, but as it happens over a longer period of time — it tends to add up. <br /><br />The shorter the wavelength, the more energy it has and thus the bigger the resulting push.<br /><br />When it comes a gravitational keyhole, on the other hand, the change in an asteroid’s orbit is more immediate. But unlike the Yarkovsky effect, where sunlight is all around, gravitational keyholes only occur in tiny regions of space.<br /><br />If the 1998 OR2 were to pass through a gravitational keyhole — any spot in space where the asteroid’s orbit could get affected by the gravity of a nearby planet — it has the potential to push the asteroid into a direct collision course with Earth.<br /><br />The point of concern is that if the asteroid is to hit Earth, there’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">very little</a> that anyone can do about it. As of now, most space agencies around the world are still working on their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/astronaut-says-a-neglected-telescope-is-nasas-best-chance-of-defending-earth-from-city-killer-asteroids-for-gods-sake-fund-it/articleshow/66910270.cms">planetary defense strategies.</a> <br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><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><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><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">An asteroid was supposed to hit Earth in September — but astronomers can’t seem to find it</a><br />

An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year

<br /><br /><ul><li>The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has confirmed that an ‘unambiguously’ interstellar space object is going to visit our solar system. <br /></li><li>The comet-like object now has an official name — 2I/Borisov.<br /></li><li>2I signifies that it's the second <keyword id="5933698" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Interstellar-object">interstellar object</keyword> to be spotted and Borisov is the name of the astronomer who first spotted the object — Gennady Borisov.<br /></li></ul>Earlier this month, astronomers spotted a new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-second-mysterious-object-from-interstellar-space-may-be-about-to-fly-through-our-solar-system/articleshow/71089009.cms">mysterious interstellar object</a> which will visiting our solar system. It’s only the second such object to be spotted after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-bizarre-interstellar-object-called-oumuamua-continues-to-perplex-astronomers-a-year-after-it-vanished-heres-why-a-few-scientists-still-wonder-if-it-was-alien-/articleshow/67809058.cms">Oumuamua</a>, last year.<br /><br />Now it officially has a name — 2I/Borisov. The 2I represents that it’s the second interstellar object to be spotted in our solar system.It is named after the astronomer who first spotted the object on 30 August 2019, Gennady Borisov.<br /><br />Aside from naming the object, the International Astronomical Union (<a href="https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1910/">IAU</a>) also confirmed that the object is ‘unambiguously’ interstellar in its origin.<br /><br /><strong>More time with the comet<br /></strong><br />Astronomers currently believe that Borisov is a comet since it has a condensed body and a short tail as per the images captured by the <a href="https://www.iac.es/en/outreach/news/gran-telescopio-canarias-obtains-visible-spectrum-c2019-q4-borisov-first-confirmed-interstellar-comet">Gran Telescopio Canarias</a> — one of the largest telescopes in the world.<br /><br />If it is a comet, it has the most hyperbolic orbits that has ever been observed.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="borisov orbit_edited" msid="71286898" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;2I Borisov&amp;#39;s hyperbolic orbit&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />It’s Borisov’s trajectory and velocity that led astronomers to conclude that it is a visitor to our solar system.<br /><br />It’s difficult to ascertain the exact size of the comet because its nucleus is embedded in the coma — the surrounding dust and ice. But, based on how brightly it shines, IAU estimates that its at least a few kilometers in diameter.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="borisov_brightness" msid="71286886" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The estimated diameter of 2I Borisov based on its brightness&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />It’s also going to be visiting for a lot longer than Oumuamua. Astronomers only had a few days to observe the first interstellar object but Borisov will be staying on till January giving scientists months to record its behaviour.<br /><br />It will be the closest to Earth on 7 December 2019 at a distance of about 3 million kilometers.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-second-mysterious-object-from-interstellar-space-may-be-about-to-fly-through-our-solar-system/articleshow/71089009.cms">A second mysterious object from interstellar space may be about to fly through our solar system</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-bizarre-interstellar-object-called-oumuamua-continues-to-perplex-astronomers-a-year-after-it-vanished-heres-why-a-few-scientists-still-wonder-if-it-was-alien-/articleshow/67809058.cms">A bizarre interstellar object called 'Oumuamua continues to perplex astronomers a year after it vanished. Here's why a few scientists still wonder if it was alien.</a><br />

Second mysterious interstellar space object to fly through our solar system has an official name

<br /><ul><li>In a rare event, two asteroids are going to whiz past Earth within hours of each other. </li><li>They’re not the biggest objects on the Asteroid Watch List but they’re two of the closest asteroids to pass by the planet.</li><li>Asteroid 2019 OU1 will be a mere 1 million kilometers from the Earth’s core as it flies past Earth.</li></ul>Asteroids whiz past Earth on a regular basis but it’s rare to see two of them gunning for the planet on the same day.<br /><br /><a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20QS">2019 QS</a> will be the first asteroid to make an appearance today and it’s around the same size as Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro or the Japan Tsunamis that stretched to 40 meters high.<br /><br />It will be followed by another asteroid dubbed <a href="https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2019%20OU1">2019 OU1</a>, which is over twice the size of its partner — making it almost as big as a football field at 98 meters.<br /><br />Both of them are going to flying past Earth within a couple of hours of each other.<br /><br />Neither of these two asteroids are as huge some others which are going to fly past the planet this year. But, they’re still on National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">Asteroid Watch List</a> of <keyword id="3106647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="near-earth-objects">Near Earth Objects</keyword> (NEOs) that could pose a risk to the planet. <br /><br />That’s because they’re going to be flying in particularly close.<br /><br /><strong>It’s about the distance<br /></strong><br />Most asteroids, regardless of size, are normally at least 3 million kilometers to the Earth’s core as they fly past. <br /><br />But 2019 QS, on the other hand, will come as close as 2 million kilometers. And, 2019 OU1 will be even closer — merely 1 million kilometers away.<br /><br />According to NASA’s Asteroid Watch, any NEO that’s within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth could be ‘potentially hazardous’.<br /><br />When space objects fly this close to the Earth, if external or internal factors were to change their trajectory even to a small degree — they could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-city-killer-asteroid-got-scarily-close-to-earth-yesterday-and-astronomers-didnt-know-about-it-until-it-was-just-days-away/articleshow/70404032.cms">collide </a>with the planet.<br /><br />The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Astronomers-Are-Planning-Dramatic-Ways-To-Stop-An-Asteroid-Collision/articleshow/21343800.cms">Yarkovsky effect</a>, for instance, is the simple result of sunlight pushing an asteroid and changing the way that it rotates. A gravitational keyhole — gravity from other objects or planets in space — is another factor that could cause asteroids to change direction.<br /><br />The bigger the asteroid, the bigger the risk — like the asteroid that nearly <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">half the size of Mount Everest and might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year.</a><br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><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><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><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><br /><br />

Two asteroids bigger than the Japan tsunamis are coming eerily close to Earth today

<ul><li>All it would take is an asteroid as big as a house travelling at 48,000 kilometers an hour colliding into Earth to have an impact equivalent to the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast.</li><li>Any asteroid larger than one kilometer in diameter would push up so much dust and debris that it could block out the Sun and initiate another Ice Age.</li><li>Space agencies are keeping an eye on <keyword id="3106647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="near-earth-objects">Near Earth Objects</keyword> passing close to Earth but even their methods aren’t full proof.</li></ul>Movies like <em>Deep Impact, </em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/RANKED-The-10-movies-that-are-going-to-dominate-the-box-office-this-summer/articleshow/52226358.cms"><em>Armageddon</em></a><em>, </em>and even the animated <em>The Good Dinosaur </em>paint a vivid picture of what it would be like if an asteroid actually hit Earth. And, while the movies might be fictional — the reality of hundreds of asteroids whizzing past the planet is not. <br /><br />The reports of asteroids bigger than the Pyramid of Giza and <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">half the size of Everest</a> passing by awfully close to Earth has gotten some scientists thinking that it’s only a matter of time before an asteroid will collide with the planet’s surface. <br /><br />And it only seems more likely since, despite the Center of Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and the Near Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC), recently illustrated how their methodology isn’t full proof.<br /><br />An <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">undetected asteroid</a> dubbed 2019 OK missed crashing into Earth by a mere 73,000 kilometers on July 26 and space agencies didn’t know of it until the asteroid had already come and gone. <br /><br />
  <div type="Youtube" id="Of3PK1O-6O0" title="What will happen if asteroids hit Earth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Of3PK1O-6O0/mqdefault.jpg"></div>



<br /><strong>Size does matter</strong><br /><br />All it would take is an asteroid that’s as big as a house travelling at 48,000 kilometers per hour to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">release the amount of energy</a> equivalent to the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast. <br /><br />That means concrete buildings for at least half a mile around the impact site would be flattened and any city would face a grim fate.<br /><br />Increase the size of an asteroid to a 20 story building, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Russian-Meteor-Hit-Atmosphere-With-A-Force-Of-40-Hiroshima-Bombs/articleshow/21343758.cms">resulting impact </a>would be anywhere from 25 megatons to 50 megatons — the same as the largest nuclear bombs that in existence today. <br /><br />
  <div type="image" title="2013_Chelyabinsk_meteor_trace" msid="70732061" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Chelyabinsk meteor that entered Earth&amp;#39;s atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013  had the explosive energy of 200 kilotonnes of TNT &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



<br />Any asteroid that spans <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/how-large-asteroids-must-be-to-destroy-a-city-state-country-or-the-planet/articleshow/64806829.cms">more than a kilometer</a> in diameter can’t be comparable to any weapon that humans have created. The one million megatons of energy that would strike Earth will result in 10 times the damage from Hiroshima.<br /><br />And, like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, the dust and debris thrown back in the atmosphere would block out the sun. In case the asteroid lands in water instead of on land, the result wouldn’t be every different with tidal waves hundreds of feet high submerging whole coastlines.<br /><br /><strong>‘The city killer’ asteroids</strong><br /><br />The asteroid that snuck past Earth, 2019 OK, is between 57 to 130 meters in diameter making it as big as a second tallest statue in the world — the Spring Temple Buddha in China. <br /><br />And, it was travelling at a speed of 86,905 kilometers per hour when it whizzed past Earth. <br /><br />If the asteroid would have collided with Earth, it would have gone off like a nuclear weapon with the force of <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/">10 megatons</a> of TNT.<br /><br />When an asteroid of about the same size fell to Earth in 1908 — known as the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska">Tunguska Impact</a> — it leveled 2,000 square kilometers of forest in Siberia.<br /><br />
  <div type="image" title="tunguska_kulik_strip" msid="70732018" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Trees felled by the Tunguska explosion&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



<br /><strong>‘Planet killer’ asteroids</strong><br /><br />The biggest of asteroid to ever hit Earth 65 million years ago was so devastating that it wiped out all the dinosaurs.<br /><br />Not because the asteroid literally landed on them but because it threw up so much moisture and dust into the atmosphere that sunlight was nowhere to be found. <br /><br />No sunlight meant no heat. The resulting drop in temperatures brought on the ice age and the dinosaurs were driven to extinction.<br /><br />As of now, the CNEOS and the NEOCC, don’t have any asteroid that’s quite as big on their radars on a collision course for Earth — but they do know that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-huge-asteroid-just-flew-past-earth-it-didnt-hit-us-but-others-might/These-space-rocks-are-leftovers-from-the-solar-systems-formation-some-4-6-billion-years-ago-A-big-one-slamming-into-Earth-could-mean-our-end-/articleshow/51336184.cms?format=slideshow">they’re out there</a>, like the <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">1998 OR2 that’s meant to pass by Earth in less than a year.</a><br /><br /><strong>See also:</strong><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><br /><br />

What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth

An <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> the size of an airplane is set to cross the Earth's orbit on Wednesday, according to <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> which expects that the space rock will not cause any harm to our home planet.<br /><br />As it crosses Earth's orbit, the near-Earth asteroid named 2020 RK2 will be about 38,30,238 kilometres from Earth.<br /><br />In terms of size, the asteroid is about 80 metres wide (which can be as big as Boeing 747) and travelling at 6.68km every second.<br /><br />NASA last month announced a new memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Defence that commits the two organisations to broad collaboration in areas including human spaceflight, US space policy, space transportation, standards and best practices for safe operations in space, scientific research, and planetary defence.<br /><br />"NASA is tasked with discovering and tracking near-Earth #asteroids. <keyword id="1710347" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Deep-Space">Deep space</keyword> survey and tracking technology is an area of collaboration between @NASA and @SpaceForceDOD," NASA Asteroid Watch, the Planetary Defence Coordination Office of the US space agency, said in a tweet.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-infosys-wipro-and-hcl-tech-expected-to-announce-more-deals-more-money-and-more-savings-in-second-quarter/articleshow/78507656.cms">TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech expected to announce more deals in the second quarter</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/economy/news/mpc-to-meet-tomorrow-as-new-external-members-come-on-board/articleshow/78510248.cms">MPC to meet tomorrow as new external members come on board</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/cinema-halls-to-reopen-from-october-15-these-are-the-guidelines-and-sops-to-be-followed-at-all-cinema-halls-/articleshow/78508895.cms"><strong>Government issues guidelines for re-opening cinema halls — 50% capacity, one-seat distance, compulsory masks and other measures</strong></a><br />

Airplane-size asteroid to cross Earth's orbit tomorrow

New Delhi [India], July 14 (ANI): With only hours left for the lift-off, anticipation is building around the launch <keyword id="18004590" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="indias-third-lunar-exploration-mission" source="Orion">India's third lunar exploration mission</keyword>, <keyword id="8011274" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-3" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-3</keyword>, by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on Friday.<br /><br />The GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle, which will release the moon <keyword id="1609912" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lander" source="Orion">lander</keyword> and rover into space, will lift off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota at 2.30 pm.<br /><br />The countdown for the launch began on Thursday at 14:35:17 IST, ahead of the lift-off on Friday.<br /><br />Chandrayaan-3 will be ISRO's follow-up attempt after the <keyword id="229677" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="chandrayaan-2-mission" source="Orion">Chandrayaan-2 mission</keyword> faced challenges during its <keyword id="943223" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="soft-landing" source="Orion">soft landing</keyword> on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its mission objectives.<br /><br />The 'Launch Rehearsal' simulating the entire launch preparation and process was concluded earlier by the ISRO.<br /><br />Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with a lander, <keyword id="18004591" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="a-rover-and-a-propulsion-module" source="Orion">a rover and a propulsion module</keyword>. It weighs around 3,900 kilograms.<br /><br />The ISRO's third lunar exploration mission is equipped with eight payloads. The experiments to be carried out by Chandrayan 3 include the Vikram lander (named after Space scientist Vikram Sarabhai) which will carry 4 instruments, Pragyan (Saanskrit for Wisdom) rover will carry two instruments and Propulsion Module or the Orbiter will carry one experiment.<br /><br />Vikram lander's experiments include Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure surface thermal properties, Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to measure seismicity around the landing site, Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) to study the gas and plasma environment, and Passive laser retroreflector array provided by NASA for lunar ranging studies.<br /><br />While the Pragyan (Saanskrit for Wisdom) rover will carry two instruments to study the surface elemental composition - Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) that will help determine the elemental composition of the lunar soil and rocks around the landing site and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) which will conduct qualitative and quantitative elemental analysis in order to infer the chemical and mineralogical composition of the lunar surface.<br /><br />The Propulsion Module or the Orbiter will carry Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) to study Earth's spectral and polarimetric measurements from lunar orbit. This helps scientists analyse the reflected light from exoplanets and determine whether they would qualify for habitability.<br /><br />The journey from Earth to the moon for the spacecraft is estimated to take about a month and the landing is expected on August 23.<br /><br />Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. One day on the Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth.<br /><br />K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programmes like Gaganyan, India's first manned space mission.<br /><br />Chandrayaan-3's development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission's progress.<br /><br />The major discovery of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, launched in 2008, was the detection of water (H2O) and hydroxyl (OH) on the lunar surface. Data mined by the rover then also revealed their enhanced abundance towards the polar region.<br /><br />The primary science objective of the mission was to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and far sides of the Moon and to conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface with high spatial resolution, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre under ISRO had said.<br /><br />Moon serves as a repository of the Earth's past and a successful lunar mission by India will help enhance life on Earth while also enabling it explore the rest of the solar system and beyond.<br /><br />Director of Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath, said earlier that if everything goes well, the spacecraft will land on the moon on August 23.<br /><br />The date has been decided based on the sunrise on the moon, he said, adding that if it gets delayed, the landing may take place next month. (ANI)<br /><br />

Chandrayaan-3 mission: Only hours left for the lift-off

<br /><ul><li>For an asteroid to actually destroy life on Earth, it will have to be bigger than the one that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.<br /></li><li>The fact that humans are smarter gives them an edge over the dinosaurs when it comes to detecting and avoiding extinction level events — like an asteroid impact.<br /></li><li>It would still be a set back for human history where people would either have to hide deep underground or survive eating shellfish.<br /></li></ul>A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-earth-this-year/articleshow/70686096.cms">large number of asteroids</a> are hovering all around the Earth, and we might get hit too sooner or later. But it will not be the Armageddon that everyone fears or the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/neil-degrasse-tyson-and-other-scientists-believe-asteroids-will-eventually-hit-earth/articleshow/70644547.cms">end of human life</a> as we know it. <br /><br />"In the order of things people should be worried about, <keyword id="3106647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="near-earth-objects">Near Earth Objects</keyword> isn't highest on the list," states Lindley Johnson, the Planetary Defence Officer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the recently published book <a href="https://books.google.co.in/books?id=qFycDwAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT45&amp;lpg=PT45&amp;dq=bryan+walsh+lindley+johnson&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=YV2WlASZOq&amp;sig=ACfU3U13mVhs1EQYXGnJs0Q1ug3A1C1EyA&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiu-f7w4afkAhVanI8KHeTGBvwQ6AEwAnoECAkQAg#v=onepage&amp;q=bryan%20walsh%20lindley%20johnson&amp;f=false"><em>End Times</em></a>.<br /><br />"But it does have the potential to be the most devastating natural disaster known to man," explains Johnson.<br /><br />And, it's only a matter of time. <br /><br />"It's a 100% certain that we're going to get hit, but we're not 100% certain when," B612 President Danica Remy told NBC.<br /><br /><strong>Humans survived when the Sun was blocked out <br /></strong><br />There is evidence that a kilometer long asteroid <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/525531/new-clues-from-earth-s-most-elusive-impact-crater?redirectedFrom=fulltext">crashed into Southeast Asia</a> around 800,000 years ago — and our ancestors had survived it.<br /><br />The asteroid did impact human evolution and blocked out the Sun for years with the dust it threw up. Yet, humanity was not wiped out. <br /><br />Scientists are yet to determine exactly how humans managed to survive and they're hoping that finding the exact impact site of the crater will help.<br /><br /><strong>Humans are smarter than dinosaurs<br /></strong><br />The fact that humans are smarter than dinosaurs gives them an edge when it comes to surviving an asteroid impact. <br /><br />"So long as we retain at least stone age technology, there isn't much that could make us extinct," Robert Walker, a scientist and mathematician, told Science 2.0.<br /><br />It's possible that humans would go back to beach-combing or surviving on shellfish but they would survive, according to Walker.<br /><br />Another way to survive an asteroid impact would be to go deep underground to survive what would be a nuclear winter — similar to what follows a nuclear war, according to <a href="https://www.livescience.com/8825-asteroid-strike-force-humans-twilight-existence.html">Elisabetta Peirazzo</a>, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.<br /><br />NASA is working on a mission to survive asteroids <br /><br />As of now, there are a lot of asteroids whizzing past Earth — some of them a little too close to comfort — but none are on a direct collision course for the planet according to NASA's Planetary Defence Coordination Office (PDCO).<br /><br />If an asteroid were to shift its course, space agencies have telescopes on ground and in space, keeping an eye out. <br /><br />NASA is currently working on its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/elon-musk-says-we-have-no-defence-against-asteroid-god-of-chaos/articleshow/70748251.cms">defend the planet</a> against any extinction level asteroids that might come its way.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><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><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/another-pair-of-asteroids-is-going-to-whiz-past-earth-on-14-september-bigger-faster-but-further-away/articleshow/70873664.cms">Another pair of asteroids is going to whiz past Earth on 14 September — Bigger, faster but further away</a><br /><br /><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><br /><br /><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><br />

For an asteroid to wipe out humans, it has to be bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> has confirmed that a mysterious object that just flew past Earth is the dead booster of a 1960s Centaur rocket.</li><li>Earth's gravity briefly captured the booster this year, causing it to loop the planet twice before returning to an orbit around the sun.</li><li>Scientists confirmed that the object was a Centaur booster by comparing its electromagnetic fingerprint to that of a known Centaur booster in space.</li></ul><p>A mysterious object zipped past Earth on Tuesday, coming within 32,000 miles of our planet. After months of head-scratching, scientists finally identified this visitor from beyond.</p><p>It's not an asteroid. It's not a comet. It's not an alien spaceship. On Wednesday, NASA confirmed that the object, formerly known as 2020 SO, is the booster of a Centaur rocket that launched in 1966.</p><div type="image" title="centaur rocket second stage" height="1536" width="2048" msid="79538692" hostid="261"></div><p>The rocket carried the Surveyor 2 mission, which was set to land on the moon, but went into a death spiral when one of its thrusters failed to fire with the others. Surveyor 2 crashed into the lunar surface, but the rocket booster had separated from the spacecraft shortly after pushing it towards its lunar destination. The booster then drifted, unseen, into the abyss of space.</p><p>Now Earth's gravity has briefly captured the rocket booster once again, like a tiny moon orbiting our planet. It's set to loop Earth twice before escaping the planet's pull in March 2021. Then it will continue on a new orbit around the sun.</p><div type="image" title="2020 so rocket booster orbit" height="670" width="1168" msid="79538693" hostid="261"></div><p>Its Tuesday flyby was the dead booster's closest approach to our planet.</p><p>A telescope on the Hawaiian island Maui first spotted the new space object in September. Its orbit seemed unnatural, following unusually close to Earth and remaining within the same plane as our planet. Most asteroids have tilted orbits, dipping above or below Earth as they journey around the sun.</p><p>"I was suspicious immediately," Paul Chodas, director of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/science/nasa-rocket-orbit.html">told the New York Times</a>.</p><p>Like Chodas, many scientists had suspected that this object was the Surveyor 2 booster, since reverse simulations of its orbit placed it so close to Earth in September 1966 that it could have easily come from our planet.</p><p>To test the theory, scientists used a NASA telescope on Hawaii's Maunakea to watch 2020 SO as it flew past Earth. They logged the object's spectrum data — wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that act like fingerprints for objects in space. Different wavelengths represent different chemical compounds.</p><p>Scientists then compared the 2020 SO spectra to that of a known Centaur rocket booster, which has been orbiting Earth since it launched a satellite in 1971. The fingerprints matched.</p><p>"This conclusion was the result of a tremendous team effort," Vishnu Reddy, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona who led the study, said in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-data-confirm-2020-so-to-be-the-upper-centaur-rocket-booster-from-the-1960-s">press release</a>. "We were finally able to solve this mystery."</p>

Mystery solved: NASA confirmed the space object that just zipped past Earth is a 1960s rocket booster

<p>The moon is the largest object floating through space around Earth, but it's not the only one. Actually, there are numerous rocky objects living in our inner solar system that occasionally pass by Earth.</p><p>Duncan Forgan, a research fellow at the University of St. Andrews, recently wrote about one such object called 3753 Cruithne (pronounced krooy-nyuh) on <a href="http://theconversation.com/earths-other-moon-and-its-crazy-orbit-could-reveal-mysteries-of-the-solar-system-38010">The Conversation</a>, where he's calling it "second moon."</p><p>Here's the best picture we have of this tiny, rocky "moon" that's only about 3 miles across. Because of its small size, astronomers need powerful instruments to see Cruithne. The telescope at <a href="http://www.askc.org/powell.htm">Powell Observatory</a> took the image below, where it only shows up as a tiny speck of light.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The space-based instrument <a href="http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/programs/neowise.html">NEOWISE</a> took five images of Cruithne that are compiled into a single image below. NEOWISE scours the sky for near-earth objects like asteroid and comets.<p>The reason the object appears red in this image is because it is radiating light at lower energies than the white stars in the background, <a href="https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Bauer/">James Bauer</a>, a scientist who studies comets at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained to Business Insider in an email.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Cruithne is a type of object called an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aten_asteroid">Aten asteroid</a>, which is a group of asteroids that live within the inner solar system between Earth and the sun. It has a weird path through space where it orbits both the sun and the Earth in a strange kidney-shaped path.</p><p>Aten asteroids are relatively small, which is why astronomers only recently discovered them. The first Aten asteroid was found in 1976 and Cruithne was not discovered until 1994.</p><h2>How to see it</h2><p><a href="http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~wiegert/">Paul Wiegert</a>, who studies Cruithne at the University of Western Ontario, told Business Insider in an email that "it's very hard to see [Cruithne] in even a very large telescope except as a small star like dot."</p><p>But it is possible.</p><p>Below is an image of where the object will be in the sky tomorrow [Wednesday] morning during sunrise. Wiegert pin points the exact location and says: "You'd have to look towards the sunrise. The asteroid is at the center of the red cross, and not far from the planet Mercury, in the constellation of Capricorn."</p><p>You'll need access to a pretty powerful telescope, though. "It is so faint that there is no way to find it by eye," Wiegert said. "Or even with a modest telescope."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/end-fall-demise-mayan-civilization-new-evidence-2015-1">Scientists Discovered What Actually Wiped Out The Mayan Civilization</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="55ampxcjoS7Wta3JMLFeUrzwVtgPrh0g" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

These are the only pictures we have of Earth's 'second moon'

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>An asteroid called 2002 AJ129 will pass within about 2.6 million miles of Earth on February 4.</strong></li><li><strong>The space rock may be 1,000 feet taller than the Burj Khalifa skyscraper.</strong></li><li><strong>Astronomers are taking radar images of the "potentially hazardous" asteroid, though</strong><strong>&#xa0;NASA says it has "zero" chance of hitting Earth within the next 100 years.</strong></li><li><strong>Giant telescopes are being built to find "city killer" asteroids that threaten our planet.</strong></li></ul><p><br>Astronomers are keeping a close eye on a big space rock that will fly past Earth in just a few weeks.</br></p><p>Dubbed asteroid 2002 AJ129, the rock is at least 1,000 feet wide and, according to experts <a href="http://time.com/5107838/asteroid-2002-aj129-fly-pass-earth-space-rock/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contacted by Time</a>, about 3,700 feet long. That exceeds the height of the 2,717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the tallest building in the world.</p><p>But these estimates are suspect, which is why planetary defense experts want to get more data.</p><p>"I don't think much is known about this object," Patrick Taylor, an astronomer and planetary radar expert at Arecibo Observatory, told Business Insider in an email.</p><p>Taylor and others who work with Arecibo, a huge radio dish built inside of a Puerto Rican sinkhole, plan to ping the mysterious space rock with radar and record high-resolution images using the signals that bounce back.</p><p>"The Arecibo radar will give us a much better understanding of its size, shape, and rotation by directly measuring all three properties," Taylor said.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The asteroid will fly closest to Earth during its current orbit on Monday, February 4, at around 4:30 p.m. ET, according to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7042" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a release</a> by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</p><p>NASA considers the space rock "potentially hazardous" because it flies within about 4.6 million miles of our planet's orbit. On February 4, however, it will pass within about 2.6 millions miles. During future trips, it could edge as close as 500,000 miles, or roughly twice the Earth-moon distance.</p><p>Yet Earth will be safe from 2002 AJ129 for a very long time.</p><p>"We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately," Paul Chodas, an astronomer who manages NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at JPL, said in the release. "Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance - zero - of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."</p><h2>How to photograph a potentially hazardous asteroid</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Arecibo and other radar observatories, including the Goldstone Radio Telescope, regularly ping passing space rocks like 2002 AJ129.</p><p>"We plan observations for dozens of asteroids per year, a subset of which can be found on our webpage," Taylor said, referring to Arecibo's planetary <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> radar group <a href="http://www.naic.edu/~pradar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">page</a>.</p><p>The images produced by these observation campaigns are often incredible.</p><p>Take asteroid 2014 JO25, for example. Arecibo <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hazardous-peanut-asteroid-2015-bn509-2017-2">pinged the 2,000-foot-long, peanut-shaped object with active radar</a> during its close approach in April 2017 and recorded the echoes:</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Arecibo strung the photos together into animations (which Business Insider featured as some of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/top-photos-planets-astronomy-earth-2017-12">best space and astronomy images of 2017</a>).</p><p>This clip shows the asteroid tumbling in space about <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-radar-spots-relatively-large-asteroid-prior-to-flyby" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.1 million miles</a> from Earth:</p><p>&#xa0;</p><h2>Saving Earth from killer asteroids</h2><p>Although asteroid 2002 AJ129 does not pose an immediate threat, observing such objects in detail is critical to the mission of defending Earth from dangerous space rocks.</p><p>"Arecibo goes beyond acting as a fortune teller, we can characterize these objects," <a href="http://www.naic.edu/~eriverav/">Ed Rivera-Valentín</a>, a planetary scientist with the Universities Space Research Association who studies Arecibo data, previously told Business Insider. "We can study their size, shape, spin state, composition, and near-surface geology."</p><p>The ultimate goal is to feed such data into advanced simulations and estimate how big a threat a particular space rock poses to humanity.</p><p>"An asteroid impact, unlike other natural catastrophes, can actually be avoided. The data from Arecibo can be used by NASA to inform a planetary defense mission," Rivera-Valentín said.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>A "<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">planetary defense</a>" mission may sound like the plot of a science fiction blockbuster, but NASA is serious about tracking and preparing for killer asteroids. The space agency even has a mandate from Congress to find 90% of an estimated 300,000 near-Earth objects big enough to wipe a large city off the map.</p><p>Space rocks that are capable of such devastation pass by us with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-flyby-nearer-than-moon-2017-1">worrisome</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-passing-between-earth-moon-tuesday-2017-1">frequency</a>. In fact, the typical American is about 30 times more likely to die from a regional asteroid strike during their lifetime&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/death-risk-statistics-terrorism-disease-accidents-2017-1">than a terrorist attack committed by a refugee</a>.</p><p>But NASA recently and for a third time <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-new-asteroid-missions-2017-1">chose not to fully fund</a>&#xa0;a mission called NEOCam: a proposal for a powerful asteroid-hunting space telescope that could&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/death-risk-statistics-terrorism-disease-accidents-2017-1">help get the job done</a>.</p><p>Fortunately, ground-based observatories like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) are being built and tested. As they go online in the coming years, such technology could help find killer asteroids drifting through the void.</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div>    <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></hr>

You Searched For "centre for near earth object studies" and got 12 results

Potentially hazardous giant asteroid to skim past Earth on Thursday: NASA

IANS

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

Rosie Perper,Rosie Perper

An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year

Prabhjote Gill

Second mysterious interstellar space object to fly through our solar system has an official name

Prabhjote Gill

Two asteroids bigger than the Japan tsunamis are coming eerily close to Earth today

Prabhjote Gill

What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth

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For an asteroid to wipe out humans, it has to be bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs

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Mystery solved: NASA confirmed the space object that just zipped past Earth is a 1960s rocket booster

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