In a response, Gohd blogs that in 2013, a meteor broke apart over Russia, injuring (minor) over 1,400 people. Called the Chelyabinsk Event, the meteor was estimated to be around 56-65 ft in diameter and released approximately 500 kilotons of energy. In fact, before the atmosphere absorbed most of the energy, the meteor had about 29 times the energy of the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima.
Every year, there could be dozens (if not more) of interstellar objects like comets and asteroids that come very close to Earth. In fact, as of January 3 of this year, 15,420 Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) had been discovered. On March 21, 2016, an NEO under 1 LD (lunar distance) from Earth was estimated to be 115 to 282 ft in diameter. If that object had broken through the atmosphere and landed on Earth, the damage and devastation would be immense.
Yet even more threatening is the possibility of asteroid 2013 TV135 impacting the Earth. This asteroid has only a 1 in 63,000 chance of impacting within the next 100 years, but if it does, it would be absolutely catastrophic. The asteroid measures in at about 400 m (1,300 ft), which is around 4% of the size of the asteroid that is said to have killed the dinosaurs.
The U.S. government is not taking the possibility of an asteroid impact lightly. In January of 2016, NASA joined with US defense and research agencies to form the Detecting and Mitigating the Impact of Earth-bound NEOs (DAMIEN) group. This group released a report detailing its strategy for dealing with NEOs.
The authors of this report state that while it is highly unlikely that there will be a civilization-ending NEO impact over the next two centuries, the risk of smaller but still catastrophic NEO impacts is real. There is currently no government or international strategy to respond to such an even through all phases of a NEO impact scenario. This report outlines seven strategic goals that they will use to to help mitigate the risks of a possible asteroid impact.
Read on...
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