Are Asteroids Dangerous?

A giant asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs - should we humans be worried about the same thing happening to us? Watch this video to find out, or read our explanation below!

NASA Is Hunting Asteroids

NASA asked itself a similar question several years ago, and established the Center for Near Earth Object Studies to search the Solar System for asteroids big and small, and map their trajectories. They have identified nearly 30,000 near-Earth asteroids, of which 855 are larger than 1 kilometer in size. They find 30 more asteroids each week!

Most Asteroids Aren’t Dangerous

That’s a lot of asteroids, but the vast majority of them aren’t on a collision course for Earth. No known asteroid greater than 140 meters in size - large enough damage a small region - has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years - however, NASA estimates that they’ve only found about 40% of those asteroids so far. That said, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was 10-15 kilometers wide - an absolutely monstrous asteroid that is very, very rare. Given the rarity of asteroids that threaten Earth and the pace at which we’re discovering them, humanity is in a pretty good spot to know about asteroids before they hit us.

Can NASA Defend Us From Asteroids?

NASA is currently developing ways to push asteroids off of their trajectory. Even a slight push might be all that’s needed to keep an asteroid from hitting Earth, so long as it's identified soon enough. The DART spacecraft is headed towards an asteroid as we speak - not to save Earth, but to see how much we can divert it from its path.