How NASA is Making Plans to Defend Earth from Potentially Catastrophic Asteroid Impacts

WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com – If an asteroid the size of Chicxulub hit Earth today, it would release a shock wave more powerful than a hydrogen bomb, level forests and trigger tsunamis.

Cities would collapse under seismic pulses equivalent to a magnitude (M) 10 earthquake.

As a result, clouds of dust, ash and hot steam will block sunlight, causing the Earth to freeze.

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Luckily, there’s a good chance the world will wake up to the impending danger.

Thanks to NASA’s involvement, proactive steps are being taken to prevent this potential apocalypse.

Tracking and warning of dangerous asteroids

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office’s Program Chief Executive, Lindley Johnson, emphasized that it is his agency’s duty to oversee the identification, tracking and risk assessment of potentially dangerous asteroids with the goal of finding these threats before they become dangerous.

NASA is partnering with the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), a global coalition of astronomers.

If a hazardous asteroid is detected, IAWN follows special procedures to alert the public. The information is shared across the IAWN network, verified, and evaluated for potential harm.

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Once consensus was reached, NASA issued a warning.

In the case of an asteroid heading towards the US, the White House will be notified, and an official statement issued.

If the threat is international, IAWN will notify the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs.

Identifying potentially hazardous asteroids involves tracking asteroids that are larger than 460 feet and cross Earth’s orbit within a minimum distance of 0.5 astronomical units.

As reported by the Science Times on Monday (19/2/2024), there are around 2,300 asteroids that are known to be potentially dangerous, with around 153 of them measuring larger than 0.6 miles (965 meters).

To monitor it, NASA and IAWN partners continue to search for new asteroids and track known asteroids, collecting observations into a database at the Minor Planet Center.

IAWN has identified more than 34,000 near-Earth asteroids, allowing NASA to confidently predict their orbits for at least a century.

Although it is unlikely that the asteroid Bennu could potentially hit Earth in the next 159 years, NASA is ready with a defense strategy if such an event occurs.

Detect and track near-earth objects

Although NASA regularly monitors Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) of various sizes, Congress specifically tasked the agency with identifying and tracking NEOs that are 140 meters or larger.

Because these objects could pose a significant threat if they hit Earth.

These larger objects can be detected much earlier than smaller objects such as 2024 BX1.

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Although small and harmless, asteroids like 2024 BX1 serve as valuable demonstrations of NASA’s planetary defense capabilities, featuring tools such as Scout’s fast-response trajectory computing and impact warnings.

The asteroid impact that will occur has been predicted through observations at the Konkoly Observatory, Hungary.

Detected less than three hours before impact, Scout, a NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) tool, calculated the trajectory and probability of impact.

As more observations were reported, Scout refined its calculations and reached 100 percent probability 70 minutes after discovery.

The asteroid disintegrated over a densely populated area, which later became widespread online documentation.

NEO tracking has become more sophisticated, and recent discoveries, such as 2024 BX1 and 2023 CX1, which were detected hours before entering Earth’s atmosphere, provide valuable practice for NASA’s planetary defense program.

These non-hazardous events help NASA refine mitigation strategies for potentially hazardous objects on a collision course with Earth, ensuring readiness for future scenarios.

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2024-02-20 13:32:00
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