The main belt between Mars and Jupiter is where most asteroids are located.
Through billions of years of do-si-do, some have been thrown into other circles. It is possible that some of those could crash into Earth one day. Astronomers want to prevent an asteroid from colliding with Earth.
The DART mission was mentioned.
There are about 25,000 near- Earth asteroids that are at least 500 feet in diameter. A collision with Earth would release more energy than a thermonuclear weapon, but not enough to cause a planet-wide mass extinction. The extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a six mile wide asteroid. None of them pose a threat to Earth.
Bennu is an asteroid that is as wide as the Empire State Building. Bennu won't hit Earth in the next century. About half the distance from the Earth to the moon will be covered in 2135.
The simulations will be more uncertain after 2135 due to the uncertainties in how close it will be. NASA calculated a 1-in-1,750 chance of an impact between now and 2300 last year.
There are thousands of asteroids that are not far from Earth, and NASA is still looking for them. Most of the missing asteroids will be found by the Vera Rubin Observatory, a ground-based telescope funded by the United States. NASA is working on a telescope that will be able to find asteroids. The space agency is aiming for a launch in the year 2028.
The task isn't done even when all of the asteroids are found. Smaller asteroids are more likely to cause major damage. There was a meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Russia. It did not cause any deaths, but it did cause a lot of injuries.
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