SAN FRANCISCO, iNews.id – NASA is currently tracking about 28,000 near-Earth asteroids to assess the risk of their impact. The US space agency said each year the figure increases by about 3,000 as more asteroids are discovered.
But in the coming years it is expected that the number will increase drastically as more powerful telescopes come online. Ahead of the rapid increase, scientists at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, have created a next-generation impact monitoring algorithm called Sentry-II to better evaluate the probability of a near-Earth asteroid impact.
“Popular culture often depicts asteroids as chaotic objects that glide recklessly around our Solar System, changing direction in an unexpected way and threatening our planet without a moment’s notice,” JPL said.
It’s not a fact, says JPL, that asteroids are highly predictable celestial bodies that obey the laws of physics and follow a known orbital path around the sun.”
Editor: Dini Listiyani
