The blast happened in December over Russia but has only just been detected. Worryingly, scientists had no idea the meteor was coming. Could there be more and, if necessary, could we stop them? A meteor tears through the atmosphere at 72,000 mph, heading straight towards Earth. As it approaches it bursts into a huge fireball, before blasting apart in an explosion 10 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. And we didn’t even notice. Now, scientists at NASA have revealed that a meteor exploded over the Bering Sea, near Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, on December 18. Despite its power, no one observed the fireball because it happened over such a remote region. More than 100 tons of rock from space hits Earth every day, but most of it burns up. NASA’s planetary defence officer, Lindley Johnson, says that a meteor strike this powerful comes only once or twice a century. It was the biggest meteor to hit Earth since one burnt up above Chelyabinsk in Russia six years ago. That fireball, which burned 30 times brighter than the Sun, caused a shockwave that injured 1,000 people and shattered windows. Most worryingly, in both cases, scientists had no idea the collision was coming. NASA is on a mission to find and track 90% of all near-Earth objects (NEOs) measuring over 140 metres. Space rocks this size have the potential to devastate entire regions of the planet. However, it could take 30 years to achieve this goal. We are currently only aware of a tiny percentage of dangerous objects. To help, NASA wants to launch a telescope called NEOCam into space, which would allow us to track more meteors than ever. So what happens if we find a huge asteroid on a catastrophic collision course with Earth? “Unlike most natural disasters, asteroid impacts are preventable,” says Aaron Miles from the White House. Last March, NASA published plans for an eight-ton HAMMER spacecraft, which would detonate a huge nuclear bomb to deflect an asteroid off course. Faced with a cataclysmic event like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, governments might also explore the possibility of building bunkers deep underground or sending colonies of humans to live in space. But asteroid collisions remain extremely rare. One that scientists are watching closely is Bennu, which will come perilously close to Earth in 2135. The chances of it actually hitting are one in 2,700. Armageddon? Should you be worried about asteroids? The chances of being killed by an asteroid are vanishingly small. But for all our research, the Kamchatka and Chelyabinsk meteors highlight the danger of undetected objects. Is there any point worrying about things outside your control? If we found a “doomsday” asteroid, could we stop it? It would likely be the greatest challenge in human history, requiring huge international cooperation between the US, Russia, China and private companies like SpaceX. Is humanity up to it? KeywordsDinosaurs - Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years. They were lizard-like reptiles. Some of them were the largest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. Birds are the only living descendants.
The blast happened in December over Russia but has only just been detected. Worryingly, scientists had no idea the meteor was coming. Could there be more and, if necessary, could we stop them?
Armageddon?
Keywords
Dinosaurs - Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years. They were lizard-like reptiles. Some of them were the largest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. Birds are the only living descendants.
Huge meteor explosion like 10 atom bombs
Glossary
Dinosaurs - Dinosaurs were the main animals on Earth for more than 150 million years. They were lizard-like reptiles. Some of them were the largest and scariest creatures that ever walked on land. Birds are the only living descendants.