This global question can only be answered with a stretch, and even then in the subjunctive mood: “If...”. Last year was replete with predictions from astronomers on this topic. It was planned for February by the American department NASA the fall of a giant asteroid. Probably into the ocean, because it will cause a supertsunami. And closer to Great Britain, exciting the coastal residents.
What didn't happen in 2017?
So, this “if” meant that the space alien would either miss our Planet, or the fall would destroy the city. It blew by: a terrible stone flew past. But for some reason, only NASA knew about the threat. Then they scared the earthlings in March, October and December. In March, an asteroid hundreds of times larger than Chelyabinsk is expected to land on European cities. In October, asteroid TC4 with a diameter of 10–40 meters approached. If it is smaller, it will go unnoticed, but the larger one will leave a giant crater on the surface.
Based on such bodies, astronomers give approximate sizes on which the threat to us depends. And they are not blind, because asteroids glow in flight, and this conceals their size. In the atmosphere they partially burn, losing mass.
Better fly further
But fortunately, all the asteroids and meteoroids flew past Mother Earth. Or they lost significant weight in the atmosphere, turning into meteor showers, harmless and called “falling stars”. As happened with the December meteoroid, which could have fallen somewhere in the area of Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan or Samara. By the way, the infamous Chelyabinsk meteoroid (February 2013) flew almost along this trajectory, and the Yekaterinburg meteorite as well. Space rocks love this route!
Not all of them fly with a final stop on Earth, but many fly tangentially, hundreds of thousands of kilometers from it. Astronomers and astrophysicists take a close look at celestial bodies migrating throughout the Universe, because their flight orbits change. And after some time they may come to visit us.
When will a meteorite fall to Earth (video)
2018 is no exception for the fall of asteroids or meteoroids to Earth. It is difficult to predict this phenomenon in advance. As astronomers say, it is possible to accurately predict the fall when it enters the layers of the atmosphere and begins to disintegrate into meteor showers. If you look at the starfall calendar for the current year, it is no less than a year ago. Which of them will emerge from asteroids dangerous to earthlings is still only a matter of speculation.
Incredible news has spread all over the world - a huge celestial body is approaching the Earth. Asteroid in 2017 year will come to a record close distance to our planet and some scientists suggest that even a collision is possible.
Of course, you don’t want to believe the worst and you need to hope that all the astronomers’ calculations will turn out to be false, but it is advisable to analyze the approaching catastrophe in advance. This will allow us to be prepared for any outcome that occurs in the future. Moreover, many different cataclysms of cosmic nature are known.
O great and terrible asteroid
The Phaeton asteroid was discovered back in 1983. Even then, it attracted the attention of researchers with its scale and original orbit. Astronomers did not give up trying to properly understand this cosmic “inhabitant” and tried to accurately calculate its trajectory around the Sun. In addition, scientists were able to unravel the period of its rotation, as well as understand its basic thermophysical characteristics.
Phaeton can be safely attributed to the group of Apollos. This celestial body, moving around the Sun, each time approaches a maximum distance that is not inherent in objects of this type, namely 0.14 astronomical units (approximately 21 million kilometers). Researchers have suggested that Phaethon is the main celestial body of the Geminid meteor shower, which is clearly visible from Earth in the middle of winter.
It is worth noting that this space object in its orbit is more like a comet than an asteroid. Its trajectory around the Sun resembles a highly elongated ellipse (eccentricity 0.9). In addition, during its continuous movement, the asteroid crosses the orbits of four terrestrial planets. All this data gives scientists a lot of reasons for thought, and also confirms their guesses regarding the nature of Phaethon. They believe that it is the silicate core of a comet, which during its flight around the Sun lost its icy shell.
To accurately determine the shape and size of a given celestial body, it is necessary to collect photographs taken from different angles. As a rule, such photographs can be obtained after several decades. Astronomer Josef Hanus and his team were able to use 55 photographs of Phaethon taken between 1994 and 2015. In addition, scientists were able to obtain 29 light curves, thanks to state-of-the-art telescopes located around the world.
Hanus noted that all this data helped to study in detail the shape, exact dimensions (5.1 km) and rotation period (3.6 hours) of the cosmic body under study.
Danger from Phaeton
The meeting of earthlings with a celestial body, the size of which is much larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite, should take place on October 12, 2017. For several years in a row, scientists have been trying to predict the exact flight path of Phaeton, because no one wants the predicted meeting to happen. But it is still impossible to say for sure whether the predictions will come true or not. One thing is clear - the cosmic body will approach our planet at a distance of about 10 million kilometers. One can only guess what the consequences of such an approach might be. Well, in the meantime, astronomers continue to closely monitor the movements of this celestial body and are trying to find out its composition in order to get even closer to solving its connection with the Geminid meteor shower.
The largest meteorites that fell to Earth
Goba
This meteorite is considered the largest in the world. It fell in Namibia back in prehistoric times. The block lay underground for a long time and was discovered in 1920. It was established that when it fell, the cosmic body weighed 90 tons, but over millennia of being underground, as well as during research operations, its mass decreased to 60 tons. In addition, many tourists now prefer to appropriate at least a small particle of the celestial body, so Goba continues to “lose weight”.
Tsarev
In 1922, the entire Astrakhan province was able to observe the fall of a large fireball, accompanied by a deafening roar. The sudden explosion was followed by a rain of stones. The day after the fall, residents discovered stone blocks of different sizes in their yard. The largest cobblestone weighs 284 kg and is currently in the museum named after. Fersman, in Moscow.
Tunguska
In 1908, a powerful explosion with a force of 50 megatons occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Such power is only possible with the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. This phenomenon was followed by a powerful blast wave, during which huge trees were uprooted. Residents of nearby villages lost all their windows, many animals and people died. Local residents claimed that a few minutes before the fall they saw a bright ball in the sky that was rapidly approaching the ground. Remarkably, not a single research group has been able to discover the remains of the Tunguska meteorite. However, in the area of the fall, a huge number of silicate and magnesium balls were found, which could not have formed in this area, so they are attributed to cosmic origin.
Chelyabinsk
On February 15, 2013, the whole of Chelyabinsk was shaken by a blast wave - a meteorite fell near the city. About 1,600 people were injured and windows were broken in 300 houses. Scientists have proven that this meteorite was the second largest after the Tunguska meteorite. The weight of the largest piece that was found in the area of the fall is 503.3 kg. Scientists are still trying to understand why it exploded, and how they could have missed the appearance of such a large cosmic body within our planet.
Video section
A large asteroid will fly very close to Earth on August 29, 2018, but scientists say it does not pose a danger. Of course, most asteroids are very dangerous and very large ones, when colliding with the Earth, can provoke irreparable consequences. This is why scientists from all over the world will study this astronomical phenomenon in detail.
In recent years, astronomy has been developing rapidly, as science and scientists can already predict at what time asteroids will fly close to the Earth and find out what danger they pose to the planet. On August 29, 2018, a fairly large asteroid is expected, but its trajectory, although it will be close to the Earth, will still bypass it. The asteroid's movement will be constantly monitored and will allow scientists to check the accuracy of their predictions.
On August 29, 2018, a large asteroid measuring about 160 meters will fly by
On August 29, 2018, a very large asteroid measuring 160 meters in diameter will fly just 5 million km from Earth. Scientists, after lengthy mathematical calculations, named this figure, which is approximately 20 m greater than the diameter of the Ferris wheel in the capital of Great Britain, London. This cosmic body will fly very close to the Earth, especially considering that at a distance of 7 thousand km it is considered very dangerous. However, in this case, the asteroid will be far from the critical point, which makes it even less dangerous, despite its impressive size. If we imagine that an asteroid does collide with planet Earth, this could have devastating consequences. At least one major city may be completely wiped off the face of the Earth, but other consequences can only be predicted.
Questions about cosmic bodies are now being studied quite carefully and scientists devote a lot of time to predict their behavior as much as possible. They also claim that until approximately 2029 there is no need to be afraid and all passing cosmic bodies are safe for planet Earth. However, such information is constantly monitored and updated using fresh data and calculations that are based on them. In 2019, the most dangerous asteroid should fly near the Earth, which can destroy almost all living things, but scientists also claim that it poses no danger.
Scientists expect a large comet in September that will fly close to Earth
Based on the results of recent research, scientists have found that another cosmic body will fly close to the Earth. Just like in August, the comet will not pose a threat to the planet. The comet was named 21P/Giacobini-Zinner and is quite famous in science. The cosmic body was first spotted in 1900 and every six years the comet flies over planet Earth. Also, comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner flies at a fairly large distance from the planet, approximately 50 fuel assemblies km, which provides a guarantee of safety; it is this criterion that often plays the main role. This cosmic phenomenon can be observed using a telescope; without it it is impossible to see, mainly due to the large distance, as well as the very high speed of the comet.
Some scientists suggest that it was thanks to 21P/Giacobini-Zinner that life appeared on planet Earth. It was the collision of the comet and the Earth that gave impetus to the emergence of everything necessary for the necessary conditions for life to appear. Before this, the Earth was simply a place where no one could live, but after the collision, the first living beings began to appear and a suitable climate began to form. Of course, it took a long time, but in the end it gave impetus to the birth of humanity. Many countries are now actively developing methods to protect the planet from cosmic bodies that could destroy it. In recent years, the question has become increasingly popular and gathers scientists to find the most optimal solution.
Scientists have learned to prevent the fall of asteroids close to Earth
The incident of panic surrounding an asteroid flying close to the Earth on August 29, 2018 forced scientists to think about solving the problem of real threats of such cosmic bodies hitting the planet. Thus, as part of the study of this issue, a union of teams of scientists from more than a dozen countries, including Russia, are developing a network of special installations that will detect large objects within the Earth’s orbit much earlier than a dangerous approach. In this way, scientists will be able to literally prevent the end of the world and even the threat of it in the eyes of society, which, in a wave of panic, arose around the asteroid approaching the Earth on August 29. A test launch of this network of installations is expected next year, as reported, including on the RAS website in the astronomy section.
An outstanding modern American scientist, a specialist in the field of celestial mechanics, director of the Bureau of Astronomical Telegrams of the International Astronomical Union, Professor Brian Marsden called this comet a “kamikaze”.
This is what suicide pilots were called in Japan during the war.This unusual comet was discovered by famous comet finders and researchers Caroline and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy. The observed observers photographed several areas of the starry sky on the night of March 18, 1993 using the 46-cm Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory. On one of the negatives in the area of the Virgo constellation, they noticed an unusual diffuse object of 14 magnitude, very elongated in length, almost 1 minute of arc, in the direction to the east. The object's length was several times greater than its width, which seems impossible for an object that was at the same distance from the Sun as Jupiter (Jupiter itself, the largest planet in the Solar System, has an apparent diameter of 40"). According to Jim's observations Scotty at the Kitt Peaks Observatory (USA) with the help of the 0.91-m reflector "Spacewatch", which means "Space Service", the object really had an elongated shape in size and was located at a distance of 40 from Jupiter. The famous discoverer of comets and asteroids, Eleonor Gelin, found the comet on the negative , which she obtained on March 19 using the 0.46-m Schmidt telescope on Palomar, the same telescope on which her colleague discovered the comet, and on March 31 she, along with Ray Bambury and Donald Hamilton, using an electronic camera mounted on the Palomar 60-inch reflector observatory, received a photograph of the comet, which clearly showed that the elongated image of the comet was due to the presence of several secondary cometary nuclei located in one straight line, which were formed as a result of the destruction of the larger nucleus of the parent comet. Gelin called the object a "diamond string" for its appearance because it actually resembled diamonds on a string. However, already on March 28, in the images obtained by J. Scotty, 11 secondary nuclei could be counted. An even more striking image was taken on March 31, 1993 at the Hawaiian Observatory by astronomers Jane Luu and Don Jewitt using a 2.2-m telescope, which already showed 21 secondary cometary nuclei. This was already a real “comet train,” as observers of this rare phenomenon called the destroyed comet.
Calculations showed that the comet's orbit was elliptical, almost circular, located close to the orbit of Jupiter. Due to its close approach to Jupiter, it was captured in the gravitational “embrace” of the giant planet and turned into a satellite of Jupiter with a rotation period around the planet of 2 years. Moving in the gravitational field of Jupiter, the comet flew on July 7, 1992 over the outer layers of its atmosphere at a distance of less than 50 thousand km from the Jovian clouds. As astronomers say, the comet penetrated deep into the Roche zone, within which large tidal forces tore the primary comet nucleus, whose radius was approximately 10 km, into numerous secondary fragments. Now each secondary nucleus has become an independent comet with its own head and tail. This is clearly visible in the Hawaiian photo. After leaving a place in close proximity to Jupiter, the destroyed comet came into the field of view of the telescope of several observers who photographed areas of the starry sky near the giant planet. And this is where the Shoemakers and Levy first noticed her.
Well-known experts in celestial mechanics, Americans Brian Marsden and Donald Yeomans, as well as Italian Andrea Carusi, investigated the further movement of the comet and showed that in the interval between July 16 and 22, 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy will collide with Jupiter! This unique event excited the entire scientific world. And it is not surprising, because similar collisions of comet nuclei with the Earth have repeatedly occurred both in the distant past and relatively recently, in 1908, when over the Podkamennaya Tunguska basin a 100-meter icy core of an unknown comet exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere, or, as some astronomers believe , a fragment of the nucleus of Comet Encke.
It is clear that due to the enormous mass of Jupiter, which is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth, this collision could not have global consequences for Jupiter, such as its split into separate parts or a noticeable change in orbit. The famous theoretical physicist, the “father” of the hydrogen bomb, Edward Teller, became very interested in the unique event in space. According to his calculations, when the largest of the secondary comet nuclei (about 3 km) of the “comet train” collides with a giant planet, colossal energy will be released, which will be equivalent to the energy of the explosion of 10 billion megatons of trinitrotoluene, or the energy of hundreds of millions of Tunguska meteorites (the energy that was released during the explosion of the Tunguska body in 1908 in the area of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, it was equal to 2060 megatons of trinitrotoluene).
In 1993-1994 Astronomers have gone to great lengths to carry out a large, comprehensive program of observations of Comet Shoemaker-Levy, both from Earth and from space, using the Hubble Space Telescope, the IUE ultraviolet satellite, and instruments on the Galileo interplanetary space station. Many images were taken of all the nuclei of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (initially there were 21 of them). In many photographs of the comet, the entire cometary train with its secondary nuclei located on the same straight line is clearly visible.
And then came the hot days for astronomers, the week from July 16 to July 22, 1994. But even before that, many observatories around the world, which had in their arsenal powerful telescopes with a mirror diameter of at least 100 cm, observed 21 secondary nuclei of the destroyed comet. Due to the destruction of two large nuclei Q into Q2 and Ql and P into P2 and P1, the number of secondary nuclei increased by 2, i.e. became 23, but then some nuclei ceased to be visible: J, which disappeared in December 1993, M, which disappeared back in July 1993, and the “stepson” of the P nucleus, the P1 nucleus, which disappeared in March 1994. These fragments , of course, did not disappear anywhere, but turned into large liquefied gas and dust clouds, which were no longer observed either from Earth or from space, but if this liquefied substance were somehow condensed, then these “disappeared” nuclei could be seen again J, M and P1. Ultimately, after such events, 20 “cars” remained in the comet-train, the destination station of which was the southern hemisphere of Jupiter. Telescopic and space observations of the “comet-train” were carried out in order to obtain the most accurate orbits of each of the nuclei from A to W, and this was necessary to clarify the moments of the fall of each fragment onto Jupiter. In July 1994, these moments were determined with an accuracy of several minutes.
At Kiev University, a program of photoelectric and photographic patrolling of Jupiter and Europa and Ganymede was implemented using 50- and 70-cm telescopes. Very interesting were the observations of Jupiter’s satellites Europa and Io, which were carried out using a spectrophotometer installed on a 50-cm reflector in the village of Lesniki by astronomers V.V. Kleschonok, I.V. Reut and K.I. Churyumov. During the week, three flares were recorded, one on Europa on July 16 when fragment A fell on the planet, and two more on July 20 during the fall of double fragment Q. These flares are clearly visible on the registogram obtained by astronomers. The first outbreak occurred on July 16 at 20:10. 38 sec. world time (Greenwich time), or at 22 hours 10 minutes 38 seconds. in Kyiv. The moment of the flare we recorded on Europa practically coincides with those calculated by celestial mechanics (20:11:00). The second flare we recorded on Io occurred at 19:32:09. (world time) and had a duration of about 3 seconds. This moment differs by 12 m from the calculated moment of the fall of the secondary nucleus of comet Q2 on Jupiter and is twice the error interval. The author suggested that this flash is a manifestation of the fall of an invisible fragment of a comet onto Jupiter, which can be called the Q3 nucleus, or an extended cloud of dust that preceded the secondary Q2 nucleus. The third flare, also from Io, was observed on July 20 at 19:48 m 10 sec, which is quite close (within error) to the calculated time of Q2’s fall on Jupiter and almost exactly coincides with the moment of the flare on Io, which is at the same time as us was also recorded at the Vatican Observatory by the astronomer-monks Consolmane and Menard. Thus, the two satellite flares we recorded provide the most accurate moments of the fall of two nuclei A and Q2 onto Jupiter. And this, in turn, makes it possible to clarify the orbital elements of these fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy-9, to study the evolution of their orbits, which will help answer the question about the origin of this unique comet: was it ejected by Jupiter from the Epic-Oort cloud, was it formed in the Jupiter system due to powerful volcanic processes on one of its satellites? The unique fact of registration of a light echo from Io by Kyiv astronomers attracted the attention of many observers of the comet’s fall on Jupiter. The head of the international program for observing the phenomenon of a comet collision with Jupiter, Professor of the University of Maryland Mike A. Girn, in his review speech at the 22nd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (MAC) in The Hague on August 20, 1994. praised these observations. Based on the parameters of these flares, we estimated the diameters of the secondary nuclei A and Q2. Assuming that the density of the cometary substance is of the order of 0.3 g/cm3, we determined that the diameter of the nucleus A is 1.3 km, and Q2 is 600 m.
The fall of the secondary nuclei of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 onto Jupiter occurred exactly according to the celestial-mechanical schedule. On the evening of July 16, only one core A fell, and already during July 17, four more cores B, C, D and E died in the planet’s atmosphere; On July 18, nuclei F, G and H exploded in the planet’s atmosphere. On July 19, three nuclei theoretically collided with Jupiter: J (more precisely, its gas and dust cloud), K and L. Six nuclei M (its gas and dust cloud), N, P2, P1 at once (its dust cloud), Q2 and Q1 died in Jupiter's atmosphere on July 20. On July 21, four more nuclei R, S, T and U died in the atmosphere of Jupiter, and on July 22 the last two nuclei V and W ceased to exist in a collision with Jupiter. But already on the evening of July 17, observers, incl. Numerous astronomy lovers, armed even with school telescopes and binoculars, saw an astonishing picture: the southern hemisphere of the planet was covered with noticeable black blots traces of the fall of individual fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 onto the planet. An even more grandiose picture appeared before the eyes of the observers when the nuclei F, G, H, K, L, P2, Q2 and Q1 fell. Not since Galileo used the telescope in 1610. The band at latitude -45° south on Jupiter did not have such a fantastic appearance: against the light background of the planet’s atmosphere, new structures stood out - black blots that were formed as a result of the explosion of secondary nuclei of comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 in the cloudy layer of the planet’s atmosphere. The blob that was formed from the explosion of core A had a diameter of 10,000 km, which is slightly less than the diameter of our Earth. The largest spot was formed when the L nucleus fell into the planetary atmosphere. Also in this spot, the glow of atoms of the element lithium was discovered, which had never before been observed either in comets or on Jupiter. In my opinion, lithium, which was observed in the spectrum of spot L, belongs to cometary matter and specifically to the central regions of the cometary nucleus. This gives grounds to consider the secondary nucleus L to be the central fragment of the primary nucleus of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 before its division into 21 fragments. In addition to lithium, in numerous spectra of spots on Jupiter there were also identified emissions of atoms of sodium, magnesium, manganese, iron, silicon and sulfur; glow of molecules of ammonia, carbon monoxide, water, H2S, CS, CS2, S, methane CH4, C2H2, C2H6 and other compounds. Many of these compounds have been observed in comets before, but this is the first time lithium lines have been seen. The detection of lithium in comets is important for improving the model of the internal structure of cometary nuclei, as well as for a correct understanding of the processes of nucleogenesis in the primary circumsolar protoplanetary cloud.
Another striking effect was observed after the secondary fragment K of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell on Jupiter and exploded in its atmosphere. 45 m after this event, artificial auroras appeared around the north and south poles of Jupiter. This happened due to the fact that the cometary substance, when colliding with the planet’s atmosphere at a speed of 65 km/s, turned into plasma, which, moving along the magnetic field lines of Jupiter, reached the polar regions and, bombarding the planet’s atmosphere, excited the glow of individual molecules in its upper layers , i.e. artificial aurora.
Many people around the world during the “alarming” week of July 1994 were worried about the question of how the fall of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would affect the Earth. But since Jupiter is 5 times farther from the Sun than the Earth, the disaster that happened on Jupiter had no effect on the Earth. However, exactly three years after the largest G core fell on Jupiter, on July 18, 1997, Eugene Shoemaker died in a head-on car accident while the Shoemakers were traveling in Northern Australia. Eugene was driving, and Caroline was sitting next to him. Eugene died instantly, Caroline was seriously injured, but doctors who performed a complex operation in one of the Australian hospitals saved her life. Professor Eugene Shoemaker, who had 32 comets discovered by him and his colleagues during 1983-1994, died in the same way as the famous comet Shoemaker-Levy-9, which he discovered together with Caroline and David Levy, as a result of a high-speed collision with another body. The only difference is that the comet died in deep space, and one of its discoverers died on Earth. The ashes of the outstanding scientist Eugene Shoemaker were scattered in the same month, and on February 12, 2001, the Shoemaker spacecraft landed on the Eros asteroid - this was the first landing of an artificial probe on an asteroid in the history of science.
K.I.Churyumov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. sciences,
Head of the Laboratory of Comet Physics,
professor at Kyiv National University
named after Taras Shevchenko,
Honored Worker of Public Education of Ukraine
“Few people know that comets of different sizes regularly pass at a minimum distance from the Earth”
The sensational discovery was made by Russian astronomer Nikolai Fedorovsky. According to his calculations and observations, a megacomet is approaching the Earth and will fall at the end of October. “No one knew anything about the Tunguska meteorite either, and then it fell safely in Siberia,” writes Nikolai Fedorovsky.
The scientist discovered the object at the end of August; it was moving along a paraboloid trajectory at a suspiciously high speed. Approximate speed calculations showed that the celestial body is at least an asteroid.
“It is believed that there are 2 million asteroids larger than 50 meters in the Solar System. Of these, only 4 thousand were discovered.” Nikolai Fedorovsky contacted the Kyiv Observatory, but they neither confirmed nor denied the fact that the asteroid was approaching the Earth. “No one knew anything about the Tunguska meteorite either, and then it fell safely in Siberia,” writes Nikolai Fedorovsky.
“Few people know that comets of different sizes regularly pass at a minimum distance from the Earth. They pass unnoticed - you never know what little thing flies around the planet. Take Schwassmann-Wachmann in 1995,” Fedorovsky notes.
Interesting detail. In 1986, Americans spotted a gigantic asteroid moving away from the Earth along a trajectory. Without thinking twice, American scientists calculated the trajectory, but not “forward”, but “backward”. It turned out very interesting. Approximately in the fall of 1844, this comet was bound to inevitably meet with our planet.
It is completely unclear what pulled the asteroid away from the Earth. However, some historical documents of that time describe a “fiery body” observed in the sky over Europe. The location of cosmic bodies and their trajectories in that distant year, which the Americans calculated, is very similar to the current disposition of the planets.
More than a thousand meteorite showers cross the Earth's orbit and pose a real threat to life on the planet. Participants of the V International Aerospace Congress draw attention to this problem.
“Every day, up to 20 meteorite showers pass near the Earth’s orbit. We are monitoring only nine of them, in which several dozen objects have been discovered that pose a threat of falling to Earth. But this is only a small part of more than a thousand streams passing through the Earth’s orbit,” Alexander Bagrov, a representative of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said at the congress.
According to him, these meteorite showers contain “objects ranging in size from grains of sand to 200 meters in diameter.” “It is the large number of meteors in the stream and their small sizes that make it difficult to detect using astronomical equipment, which the Institute of Astronomy now has,” the scientist said.
At the same time, he expressed confidence that “for a robotic telescope to track all the meteor showers crossing the Earth’s orbit is a one-night task.” According to Anatoly Zaitsev, a representative of the Center for Planetary Defense, asteroids also pose a threat to life on Earth.
“It is believed that there are 2 million asteroids larger than 50 meters in the Solar System. Of these, only 4 thousand were discovered. They are monitoring an even smaller number,” the specialist stated.
“To create an asteroid detection and destruction system, consisting of a ground-based detection system, as well as an American and Eurasian interception system, will require 2-3 billion US dollars and 5-7 years of work,” he said. The creation of such a system is an urgent need, because the modern world is very vulnerable, and a comet or an asteroid can collide with the Earth at any moment.