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Millions of asteroids flying near earth.

Source: https://tecake.in/millions-asteroids-flying-near-earth-yes-prone-danger

Hmm... It turns out that there are many asteroids not monitored (less than 140m in diameter). I know this poses no existential threat but I was interested in knowing what percent of total mass would an asteroid 140m in diameter make it to or near the surface of the earth?

Reply 1

Dez

Original post by tangotangopapa2

The real danger when it comes to asteroids is not so much the size of them, it's how fast they're going. Asteroids travel, really, really fast. When their mass goes beyond a certain level, an asteroid hitting a planet will discharge a lot of energy - if it disintegrates, that energy ends up in the atmosphere. If not, it'll hit the ground (and the resulting explosion will disintegrate the asteroid anyway). In both cases that sudden outburst of energy is going to make itself known, likely in the form of earthquakes, eruptions, massive tidal waves (think ocean-sized waves) and clouds of dust and debris choking everything in its path.

Basically, if an asteroid that size hits us, we're certainly screwed. :smile:

And yes, most of them are not monitored, because again, they move ridiculously fast. Trying to track their progress and their direction of travel (remember the Earth is moving about too, rotating around the sun) would be a massive undertaking, and ultimately, not really worth bothering with. Even if we did know an asteroid was heading straight for us, there's literally nothing we could do to stop it, we'd be totally up 💩 creek with no paddle.