{"id":63614,"date":"2024-09-07T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-07T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c7b05b97-c018-4baf-9b47-ca7dca66f71f"},"modified":"2024-09-07T08:39:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T08:39:40","slug":"these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"These are NASA’s top 5 biggest asteroid threats and how likely they are to hit Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 07 September 2024 at 07:32 AM<\/p>

\n\n

It’s a famous trope of science fiction: a huge asteroid on a collision course with Earth, and the daring attempts to divert it before a devastating impact.<\/p>

There are impact craters across the Solar System<\/a>, revealing how chaotic a place it can be.<\/p>

But what are the chances of an asteroid hitting Earth<\/a>? Are asteroids really a threat, and something we should be worrying about?<\/p>

Artist’s illustration of an asteroid hitting Earth. Credit: Romolo Tavani \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Potentially hazardous asteroids<\/strong><\/h2>

A potentially hazardous asteroid<\/a> is defined as a space rock with a size larger than 140 metres (459ft), or a brightness of magnitude +22.0 or more, which also has a trajectory that brings it within 0.05 astronomical units (AU) from Earth, or 19.5 lunar distances.<\/p>

An organisation known as the Minor Planet Center uses data from space and ground-based telescopes to work out asteroid and comet orbits, and make the call on whether an object is a potentially hazardous asteroid or not.<\/p>

\"A
A view of asteroid Bennu, its striking craters and surface covered in boulders, captured by OSIRIS-REx’s OCAMS (MapCam) instrument on 28 April 2020 from a distance of 10km. Half of Bennu is bathed in sunlight, and half is in shadow. Credit: NASA\/Goddard\/University of Arizona<\/figcaption><\/figure>

This essential monitoring is complicated by the fact that asteroids\u2019 orbits can vary over time, as they are affected by the gravitational influence of other bodies or impacts with them.<\/p>

At the time of writing, NASA estimates that over 90% of potentially hazardous asteroids have been found.<\/p>

They have identified 35,376 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) of all sizes, 863 of which are larger than 1km (0.6 miles) across, while 10,909 are 140 metres across or more.<\/p>

Asteroids over 140 metres across hit Earth about once every 25,000 years; those over 1km strike our planet every 500,000 years.<\/p>

Here are the top asteroid threats, their size and how likely they are to hit Earth.<\/p>

Name<\/strong><\/th>Mass<\/strong><\/th>Size<\/strong><\/strong><\/th>Earth impact<\/strong> probability<\/strong><\/th>Year of potential impact<\/strong><\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/strong><\/td>Bennu<\/td>74 million tonnes<\/td>0.49km<\/td>0.037%<\/td>2182<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/strong><\/td>29075<\/td>78 million tonnes<\/td>1.3km<\/td>0.0029%<\/td>2880<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/strong><\/td>2023 TL4<\/td>47 million tonnes<\/td>0.33km<\/td>0.00055%<\/td>2119<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/strong><\/td>2007 FT3<\/td>54 million tonnes<\/td>0.34km<\/td>0.0000087%<\/td>2024<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/strong><\/td>1979 XB<\/td>390 million tonnes<\/td>0.66km<\/td>0.000055%<\/td>2113<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>

This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Published: Saturday, 07 September 2024 at 07:32 AM It’s a famous trope of science fiction: a huge asteroid on a collision course with Earth, and the daring attempts to divert it before a devastating impact. There are impact craters across the Solar System, revealing how chaotic a place it can be. But what are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":63615,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth.jpg",1200,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth-768x461.jpg",768,461,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth-1024x614.jpg",800,480,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth.jpg",1200,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/09\/these-are-nasas-top-5-biggest-asteroid-threats-and-how-likely-they-are-to-hit-earth.jpg",1200,720,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Saturday, 07 September 2024 at 07:32 AM It’s a famous trope of science fiction: a huge asteroid on a collision course with Earth, and the daring attempts to divert it before a devastating impact. There are impact craters across the Solar System, revealing how chaotic a place it can be. But what are…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/63614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}