When a meteorite enters the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed, it warms up. A streak of light is produced by this heating up. A fireball is created when a meteorite is bright enough to be seen by Venus. Sometimes fireballs explode in the atmosphere. Even during the day, these bolides are bright enough to be seen.
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) which is run by NASA, is interested in studying bolides as they pass through the atmosphere to model larger asteroids. Learning how to predict the behavior of asteroids is essential to protecting our planet from a devastating impact with long-term implications for the survival of many species on Earth.
The information on these bolides is collected by the U.S. Space Force and shared with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA has been tasked with detecting and categorizing near-Earth objects that may be detrimental to our planet in an effort to find ways to divert or otherwise remove the threat they pose. They have information for over a thousand bolide events.
The light-curve of bolides as they enter the Earth's atmosphere was given more detail by this recent release of data. The bolide's brightness is described by the light-curve.
This new information will help researchers determine an object's strength and composition, as well as the approximate total radiated energy and the direction from which it came. Predicting where deadly impactors will end up is one of the ways this information can be used.
An extinction-level event is when a large amount of organisms are wiped out in a short time. Animals, plants, fungi, and single-cell organisms are included. There have been 5 mass extinctions on our planet in the past 450 million years, the last of which was caused by an asteroid impact that made dust and debris hang in the atmosphere long enough to bring about major climate change.
The chance of an asteroid hitting Earth is very low. The fact that our solar system continues to quiet down from its early stages of development may not be taken into account by some scientists. As space expands, stars move farther away from each other, making it less likely that we will be hit by objects from the outside.
Should we stop trying to find them? One day before the asteroid passed between the Earth and the moon, it was spotted. An asteroid came within 65,000 km of our planet. It was the size of a football field and would have caused a lot of waste. Should we find any potential hazard, the continued efforts of the CNEOS will help reduce the threat.
NASA has found 40% of NEOs that are larger than 140 meters. There are still many left to be found, so they have been directed to find 90%. There is a chance that another one will sneak up on us even if they find all of these. Hopefully we will have a plan in place by then to divert or remove the threat.
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