“Millions Of Asteroids Could Be Heading Toward Earth” Mike From Around World / China Says
- Could a million small asteroids be on a collision course with Earth?
by Stephen Chen * Chinese researchers say hundreds of thousands of the space objects may be heading our way over the next century
* But there’s no need to panic just yet, says an astronomer not involved in the study
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Up to a million asteroids could be on course for the Earth over the next century, according to a new study by Chinese astronomers. While the risk of collision is low and most of the asteroids are less than 100 metres (328 feet) across – small compared with the one that wiped out the dinosaurs – each one has more kinetic energy than an atomic bomb, and we know little about them.
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The small size and large number made these short-term hazardous asteroids (SHA) extremely difficult to track, said Professor Gan Qingbo and colleagues at the Space Debris Observation and Data Application Centre at the China National Space Administration.
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“The accurate identification of impact threat targets and early warning capabilities requires more precise algorithms for orbit determination and impact risk assessment,” they said in a paper published in domestic peer-reviewed journal Acta Astronomica Sinica on Thursday.
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