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Monday 17 November 2014

Asteroids colliding with Earth more than 550 times in 20 years

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New data released by NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) program shows that the Earth has been struck more than 550 times in a twenty-year period.

The map divides the collisions among those that hit during the night and those that entered the atmosphere during daylight. The size of each dot is proportional to the optical radiated energy.

The data was gathered by American sensors between 1994 and 2013 during which 556 bolides—or bright meteors—were reported all across the world.

Each impact released energy up to 1,000,000 giga joules (which is the equivalent of one million tons of TNT explosives).

NASA has allocated more than 10 times the money that they had budgeted five years ago to asteroid detection. The agency says that characterizing hazardous asteroids to protect our home planet is a high priority for the space agency.

To help with this mission, NASA is also developing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) which will send astronauts to explore asteroids. See the video below :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4IBW4XuUFo

Source : .the weather network

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