11 Asteroids Getting Nervously Close to Earth

you look up and see a bright orange flash in the sky a bit later you hear a boom so loud the window panes around you burst into pieces and then you see it a giant piece of space rock burning high above your head heading for earth when it touches the surface the explosion leaves behind an enormous crater it's 12 miles deep and as wide as lake michigan after that three quarters of all living organisms on our planet are on the edge of survival this event took place about 66 million years ago and the bright flash in the sky was the very asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs these days people have many ways to protect themselves like we could hide in bunkers deep underground and survive such bunkers would already come in handy since there are many asteroids in the sky and some of them are just waiting for their ticket to earth to wreak some havoc for example the asteroid 1990 mu in 2027 it'll come alarmingly close to our planet many people fear that earth's gravitational pull will trap the rock which is the size of two brooklyn bridges in this case it'll start to move closer and eventually crash into the planet's surface such an impact would cause a shock wave that would be felt on other continents once the asteroid hit the ground there would be an explosion it'd be so bright people would think a new sun appeared right here on earth the collision would release a huge amount of energy that would then turn into heat everything around the impact site would catch fire and if the asteroid fell in the water it would cause tsunami waves higher than the empire state building many coastal cities would be flooded the dust that would rise after the explosion would cover the sun the world would be plunged into darkness if the dust stayed in the air long enough the climate on the planet would change and earth would start to freeze if you think such a small meteorite can cause serious damage look at the chayabins meteor it hit the earth in the winter of 2013. when the space rock entered the atmosphere people miles away heard a loud bang the brightly burning object was approaching the surface at about 11 miles per second halfway through the flight it split into several pieces this caused several stronger shock waves when the meteorites hit the ground it caused a major earthquake and the aftershock from the explosions shattered the windows of five thousand buildings people in six cities around the crash site felt the after effects of the fall and this meteorite was only 60 feet wide fortunately the asteroid 1990 mu will move past our planet we'll be safe [Music] but the next asteroid to approach earth is going to be three miles wide it's called 3122 florence if this giant hit our planet it could wipe entire continents off the face of the earth in 2017 this space rock got awfully close to us it could be seen in the sky even with a small telescope now the next asteroid is the biggest one to worry about 1999 jm8 it's about as wide as manhattan and it has an unnerving habit of approaching earth a bit too close for everyone's liking a small asteroid named 2020 vt4 got closer to our planet than all others have ever done in november 2020 it flew over the pacific ocean at an altitude a bit smaller than the distance from los angeles to las vegas that space rock was about the size of a big car if it did make it to earth's atmosphere it would burn up completely before touching the ground falling asteroids and meteorites aren't uncommon on our planet luckily most of them burst into flames and burn up before they enter the atmosphere mars is to blame for such frequent meteor showers the planet isn't far from the main asteroid belt in the solar system sometimes the gravitational pull of the red planet grabs asteroids from there then mars spins them around and flings them in our direction just like a slingshot so mars is a bullet good thing we're protected by jupiter it's the largest planet in our solar system and it has an incredibly strong gravitational field it keeps the asteroid belt in line and protects us from being constantly hit by a rain of meteorites and that's good news considering ceres is in the asteroid belt this enormous space rock is so big that it was once considered to be a planet then for many years scientists called ceres an asteroid but in 2006 it was finally classified as a dwarf planet this space object contains a third of the total mass of the asteroid belt which is about four percent of the moon's mass if earth were as large as a nickel ceres would be about the size of a poppy seed so what if an asteroid several miles across was heading toward our planet and people had to stop it well we could break the space rock into smaller pieces a massive explosion could be used to do this people wouldn't even need to land on the giant asteroid getting close to its surface would be enough boom a powerful burst of energy would split the asteroid into several large pieces and tons of debris the smallest rocks would burn in the heat released in the blast and it would also change the asteroid's trajectory the larger fragments would burn up while entering the atmosphere all witnesses of this unusual meteor shower would have a chance to admire a beautiful fire show another means of protection could be a kinetic battering ramp simply put it would be a huge object that people would send towards the asteroid approaching earth or it could be a heavy spaceship this is the method scientists produce to prevent the asteroid epoxis from falling to earth this guy is 1200 feet across and often passes by our planet coming as close as 19 000 miles above earth's surface the asteroid is going to pass close to our planet again in 2029 and there is a possibility that in 3036 it might crash into the earth if it happened the explosion would leave a crater more than three miles across within six miles of the impact zone all buildings and subway tunnels would be crushed or severely damaged the event would also trigger a powerful earthquake in the area of 30 miles away from the crater car windows and window panes and houses would be shattered and 75 miles away from the impact site the earthquake would move furniture and buildings one way to stop such a catastrophe is to build a heavy spaceship it would take off from earth speed up and then ram into the asteroid with great force this impact would alter the course of the huge space rock and it would fly past our planet we could also try to stop the asteroid by wrapping it in foil this would make its surface reflective and then solar pressure might gradually change the asteroid's trajectory another alternative is using the gravitational tug in this case we would send an unmanned spaceship large and heavy toward the asteroid it would fly over the space rock and slowly draw the thing closer with its gravitational pull a small change of course would be enough to make the asteroid fly past our planet another way to protect earth would be to build a system of giant lenses in space perhaps you've tried focusing sunlight with eyeglass lenses then you know how hot this sunlight can get now imagine having many giant lenses that are all directed at one point scientists think that focusing such a powerful beam of light on the asteroid would make the rock melt and evaporate slowly changing its root and one more way to protect ourselves from the asteroid would be to install several rocket engines on its surface it would turn the space object into a rocket and we could set its course from earth rogue stars pose a much bigger danger like asteroids they fly through space and can collide with anything in their path the problem is that they have a gigantic mass sometimes comparable to our suns around seventy thousand years ago a duo of rogue stars whooshed past the sun it didn't affect earth but caused some disturbance on the outskirts of the solar system this event is likely to happen again someday the rogue star gliese 710 about half the mass of our sun is moving toward our solar system right now there's a possibility that it'll begin to grab asteroids from the outer asteroid belt and toss them at us and then rare meteor showers you can observe these days will become a regular occurrence but right now this rogue star is extremely far from our world and there's a bigger chance that it'll pass by without affecting our peaceful existence

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 256,402

Keywords: bright side, brightside, space facts, bright side space facts, facts about planets, amazing space facts, space, space discoveries, space exploration, space mysteries, space phenomena, planets, planet facts, asteroids, what are asteroids, how asteroids form, unexplained space phenomena, asteroids near Earth, where asteroids come from, asteroids facts, asteroid belt, asteroid hitting earth, facts about asteroids, will an asteroid hit the earth, where to hide from asteroid

Id: KIxXYjHfjAU

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021