Each year, NASA reports that a car-sized chunk of rock hurtles through space, burning up in Earth's atmosphere to create a meteor or fireball.
While smaller asteroids are mostly harmless, larger ones can be dangerous. For example, the asteroid 2024 YR4, discovered in December 2024, was initially predicted to have a 1.2 percent chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032.
Although the risk has since dropped to 0.001 percent, it sparked investigation due to its potential to cause significant damage if it hit a populated area.
Asteroids like YR4 originate from the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. These rocky remnants are fragments from larger bodies that formed during the birth of the Solar System over 4.6 billion years ago. Most asteroids in the belt are kept in place by Jupiter's gravitational field but can occasionally be nudged into new orbits that bring them closer to Earth.
Asteroids vary in size, composition, and structure. YR4, a rocky asteroid, likely came from the inner asteroid belt. Some asteroids are made of metals like iron and nickel, which would cause more damage if they collided with Earth. The level of damage depends on the asteroid's size and composition. While Earth’s atmosphere protects us, larger asteroids can still cause devastating air blasts if they explode in the sky, like the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor.
To detect these threats, NASA and other space agencies use telescopes and space missions. The DART mission successfully tested asteroid deflection in 2022, which could help protect Earth from future impacts. Studying asteroids not only helps us defend our planet but also provides insights into the early Solar System, its formation, and the potential resources asteroids could offer in the future.
Source: BBC
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