At a conference, representatives of the NASA reported that our planet is not prepared for the risk posed by the space presence of thousands of gigantic asteroids, many of whom still They have not been able to be identified.
A few years ago, the US agency carried out a test in which it was able to demonstrate that it could deter a threat of this type, but it did not delve into the program, but rather into the improvement of the detection systems.
Through its website, the agency provides updated details of how many asteroids orbit near the Tierraas well as the diameter and other interesting data of these objects.
«City destroyers»: what are the asteroids that worry NASA and why
The NASA issued an alarming warning: Earth has no active defenses against the possibility that any of the surrounding 15,000 medium asteroids, that remain unidentifiedimpact against her.
Astronomers don’t know where these objects are located “city destroyers”«, admitted the doctor Kelly Fastresponsible for the Defense Coordination Office Planetarium from NASAduring the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
These rocks have at least 140 meters in diameter, So if one were to hit a populated area of Earth it could “cause real regional damage,” Fast said.
The doctor made it clear that what worries her are unidentified objects. “What keeps me up at night are the asteroids that we don’t know about«, held.
Medium-sized meteors pose a particular challenge because they are difficult to detect, while massive ones, like the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, are easy to track. “We’re not so worried about the movie greats, because we know where they are,” Fast said.
Small asteroid fragments impact without significant damage, but it is the 140-meter category that is of most concern: they are large enough to cause catastrophic regional damage, but the small enough to evade detection methods current.
The situation is worsened by the lack of an immediate response. Dr. Nancy Chabot, leader of the DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) at Johns Hopkins University, expressed deep concern.
DART was a spacecraft that, on September 26, 2022, deliberately crashed into Dimorphos, the moon of the binary asteroid Didymos, to test for the first time whether it was possible to divert the orbit of an asteroid. The test was successful, since Dimorphos’ orbit was shortened more than expected, making it evident that asteroid deflection is technically possible.
However, there is currently no other spacecraft that could be used in a future mission. “DART was a great demonstration, but we don’t have that ready to go if there was a threat that needed it,” Chabot explained.
Astronomers were on high alert last year when it appeared that YR4an asteroid the size of a football field, could crash into Earth.
This space rock passed by Earth on Christmas Day 2024, but was only seen a week later. Analysis of its trajectory indicated that it was moving away at about 61,000 km/h, but its orbit could put it on a collision course in 2032.
Chabot maintained that, If an asteroid like YR4 hits Earth, there is currently no ability to deflect it. However, he said that humanity has the potential to do so, but that other priorities have been chosen.
«If something like YR4 were headed toward Earth, we would have no way to actively deflect it right now. We could be prepared for this threat, but I don’t see that investment being made,» he said.
Instead, NASA is focused on meteor identification tasks. Mainly, bet on the mission Near-Earth Object Surveyor, which consists of the construction of a new space telescope to study the night sky, which will help it achieve the goal of detecting and tracking more than 90 percent of objects larger than 140 meters in diameter close to Earth.
The mission is expected to launch next year with the ability to identify bright and dark asteroids, which are the most difficult to find.
«Some members of our community have said that planetary defense is about finding asteroids before they find us. I would like to add that perhaps «We should catch them before they catch us.»detailed Kelly Fast.
How many asteroids are there near Earth?
In December, using as a basis the 514,400,000 astronomical observations that were sent to the Minor Planet Center, NASA updated its near-Earth asteroid counter.
The agency considers that a meteor is «close» to our planet when its orbit is located (or has the capacity to be located) less than 200 million kilometers from the Sun.
According to its website, it has detected 876 asteroids with a diameter greater than 1 kilometer, while it estimates that 50 remain unidentified.
In the category «more than 140 meters long«, which is the one that worries astronomers the most, the agency counts 11,493. However, as Kelly Fast warned, what alarms them most is the number of unidentified ones, which is even higher: 14.000.
«Of the estimated 25,000 objects orbiting our planet, NASA only managed to locate 40%,» summarized Fast.
In addition, NASA reports that in the last 30 days 21 asteroids passed closer to the Earth than the Sun, while 191 did so in the last year.
At the end of the statement, finally, he added that 100 tons of dust and sand particles bombard the Earth daily.
