UNITED STATES: Asteroids are celestial bodies that move in space just like planets and other cosmic bodies, but the difference is the velocity with which they move.
The velocity is so high that even minor asteroids can create havoc because of the momentum they possess.
Twenty-eight thousand tiny and large asteroids and comets that pass by Earth’s orbital neighbourhood while travelling through the inner solar system have so far been detected by NASA.
Planet-killing asteroids are something against which we would have no defence if one hurtled toward us, even though many countries have spent billions on weaponry for their defence against other nations.
One such asteroid, about 10 km large, slammed our planet 66 million years ago and killed most of the dinosaurs.
A new option on Neal.fun called “Asteroid Launcher” has appeared, estimating the destruction a large space rock would cause if it fell on Earth today.
Asteroids continue to pose the greatest threat and cause scientists the most concern.
The free, user-friendly website allows users to select an asteroid made of iron, gold, rock, or carbon as well as a place anywhere in the world.
You can select the size of the asteroid when you first visit the website, and it will be travelling at a top speed of more than 4,00,000 kilometres per hour.
The website estimates the size of the crater that will be left after the asteroid’s impact and the potential number of casualties after choosing a place on the world map and launching the object.
According to the website, if an iron asteroid with a diameter of 2,400 feet were to fall at a speed of 1,947,30 km/h on New York, the impact would leave a crater that was 2,519 feet deep and 24 metres wide.
Unbelievably, 5,57,230 humans might instantly vaporise in the crater due to the collision’s energy release, which is equal to 275 gigatons of TNT.
The website also claims that the 46-kilometer-wide fireball will result in the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people. Additionally, this fireball would ignite clothing within 236 km of the collision and burn trees within a 400 km radius.
Additionally, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake might be produced by the impact. It goes without saying that the degree of harm would depend on the population density as well as the size and speed of the asteroid.
NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which collided with an asteroid moonlet on September 26.
The mission’s goal was to show that it is possible to alter an asteroid’s trajectory, which makes sure that we can practically nudge an asteroid coming towards us to change its path and eliminate the danger.
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