Science
A whole stream of asteroids could fall to Earth in the next 100 years, experts warned.
A previously unknown asteroid belt located in deep space is heading towards our solar system.
Asteroids could collide with Earth as early as 2020, wiping out life and changing the climate for millennia.
NASA has released frightening data based on observations of space objects over the past 60 days.
According to data, more than 400 asteroids can be expected between 2017 and 2113.
Most of them have a diameter of about 100 meters, which can cause significant damage.
In addition, one of the major asteroids threatens Earth in just 6 years.
Asteroids in 2014
An asteroid the size of a bus, named 2014 EC, passed just 61,637 km from Earth in March this year. Scientists did not see him coming, but only saw him moving away. Had he come a little closer, the consequences might have been disappointing.
Most recently, on September 7, 2014, the asteroid 2014 RC flew over Earth. It was 18 m in size and traveled 40,000 km from our planet
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Many people believe that it was the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, and a similar event awaits us in the near future.
The fall of an asteroid or space debris from a comet would have devastating consequences. The atmospheric composition will be disrupted and something like a “nuclear winter” will occur, which will last tens of thousands of years.
The asteroid 2012 DA14, recently discovered by astronomers, has less than 1 percent chance of hitting Earth, but scientists don't rule out this possibility.
Comets and asteroids
Researchers believe that the Earth is threatened by two types of impacts: asteroids, which are blocks of rock, and large comets formed from ice and break into billions of particles when they hit Earth.
Some comets can have catastrophic consequences. For example, Comet Swift-Tuttle, discovered on July 16, 1862, will pass close to Earth in 4479.
Scientists from the NASA Research Center have calculated that there are more than 2,000 asteroids larger than 1 km in size in space.
The fall of one of these asteroids in the wrong place could be a catastrophe, but it does not threaten civilization.
The fall of an asteroid larger than 1-2 km in size can affect the climate, lead to the death of crops and the loss of life.
If an object larger than 5 km in size hits Earth, that would be enough to lead to mass extinction.