Posted
on March 23, 2014
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| ^ THIS is so much better than THAT. v |
In
1989, an asteroid larger than an aircraft carrier whistled by the
Earth, missing all of us by about 400,000 miles (640,000 km)!
It
was traveling 46,000 miles per hour!
The
asteroid passed through the exact spot where the Earth was just six
hours before!
But...it
may surprise you to know that the asteroid, called 4581 Asclepius,
wasn't even discovered by scientists until AFTER it had passed!
If
we had gotten hit, it would have been a huge shock—in more ways
than one—we hadn't even seen it coming!
That
near miss, which we didn't even know about until we were out of
danger, acted as a wake-up call. The U.S. Congress directed NASA to
study near-Earth objects such as asteroids and comets, to determine
as exactly as possible their orbits. It also directed NASA to come up
with some strategies of how to deal with a space rock that turns out
to be on a trajectory to hit us.
The
public got interested in the topic of a possible city-ending—or
even civilization-ending, or world-ending—impact. There have been
at least six (count 'em, six!) movies about space rocks hitting—or
threatening to hit—the Earth since 1989: Deep Impact,
Armageddon, Meteorites, Asteroid, Doomsday
Rock, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.
Of
course, space rocks have come closer to Earth than 4581
Asclepius—indeed, as you know, some meteorites have actually struck
our planet!—but nothing the size of 4581 Asclepius has hit in
recorded history. To give you a comparison, the Chelyabinsk meteor
that made such big news in February 2013 was estimated to be about 20
meters (65 feet) across, and the powerful Tunguska explosion of 1908 was caused by an asteroid from 45 to 70 meters (150 to 230
feet) across—but 4581 Asclepius is about 300 meters (1,000 feet) in
diameter!
 |
| We have a lot of footage of the Chelyabinsk meteor, thanks to dashboard cameras. |
These
days, at least 8 surveys are part of the Spaceguard effort to
discover and study near-Earth objects. (The name “Spaceguard” was
first created by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in
his book Rendezvous with Rama.) The effort to observe and catalog near-Earth objects and keep track
of their orbits and whereabouts is the first step to protecting us
from an impact like the one believed to have wiped out the mighty
dinosaurs.
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