The following asteroid belt visualization shows just how surrounded we are on planet Earth — in the middle of an asteroid shooting gallery…
Most asteroids come from a region in space between the planets Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt – a place loaded with irregular shaped objects ranging in size from dust particles all the way up to many, many miles across.
Portions of the asteroid belt are very dense with objects, and frequent collisions take place, changing the orbital nature of the objects themselves (like a ping-pong gallery). Some of these result in eventual collisions with the Earth’s atmosphere as meteors or ‘shooting stars’.
What are the chances of Earth being hit by an Asteroid?
A sobering statement from the Armagh Observatory, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading scientific research establishments, reads…
“Even conservative estimates would suggest that for every asteroid on a dangerous Earth-Approaching orbit there are hundreds more which have yet to be discovered. There are over 300 known objects on Earth-crossing orbits, the majority of which are potentially capable of causing death and destruction on a scale unheard of in human history.”
“It is estimated that there are perhaps 100,000 to 1,000,000 undiscovered asteroids on similar Earth crossing orbits.”
Video of Asteroid Discoveries from 1980 – 2010
The following video shows the discovery timeline of all known asteroids beginning in 1980 through 2010. As the video progresses, the newly discovered asteroids are briefly highlighted. As the years progress, more are found each year… Watch as the asteroids cross Earth’s orbit (the third ring out from the center) and notice the circling swarm by the end.
If you have enough internet bandwidth, select HD 720p or 1080p, full screen, in a dark room for its full effect. Pretty impressive.
You may gain a new understanding of the asteroid collision risk that the Earth faces in the somewhat chaotic environment of the solar system and its asteroid belt.
Currently we have observed over half a million ‘minor planets’ (asteroids – objects), and the discovery rates show no sign that we’re running out of undiscovered objects.
Scientific estimates suggest that there are about a billion asteroids larger than 100 meters (about the size of a football field).
Orbital elements were taken from the ‘astorb.dat’ data created by Ted Bowell at lowell.edu.
Red (Earth Orbit Crossers)
Yellow (Earth Approachers)
White (Newly discovered)
Green (all others)
Asteroid Belt Video Created by Scott Manley
1980 – 2010
Asteroid Belt – Edge View
Note: An asteroid the size of a house would wipe out a city region like a 20 kiloton bomb.
Note: An asteroid half a football field wide wiped out 1,200 square miles of Siberia in 1908.
Note: An asteroid a mile wide would likely end us all…
…hope you sleep well tonight (wink)
The PHAs, Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, lnfo listed at spaceweather.com have started to increase at a higher rate over the last six months. These are just the ones that are allowed to be listed.
I do believe that if our Govt has knowledge of an impending impact, we WILL NOT be given a warning until there’s no chance of survival for the common unprepared populations of the world!!
I also believe this Govt has and will continue to use WEATHER MODIFICATION to manipulate and weaken populations IN THIS COUNTRY!!!
Interesting article. I have found and bookmarked two interesting websites concerning asteroid impacts. The first one is: http://www.spaceweather.com/
Scroll down to the section called “Near Earth Asteroids.” There is a chart giving future near earth objects, their size, distance from earth at their closest points, and date of passing.
The other site is http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/ Earth Impact Effects Program, in which you can input the size and composition of an expected asteroid impact, your distance to it, and whether it hits on land or water. Most impacts occur in water.
Another interesting site is http://ds.iris.edu/seismon/ Seismic Monitor that shows earthquakes around the world that are 4.0 or higher. I check this one often as I live near the Yellowstone caldera. It would be a good site to check if you live on the west coast, also.
Another good site for earthquakes is http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/world/
Peanut:
That one is good because it is not limited to Magnitude 4.0 and higher. I really like the map on the other site, though.
Sobering…Scary
The Siberian meteor wiped out an area approximately 34.6 x 34.6 miles. Makes it give a better perspective of the area. It exploded many miles before it would have hit the earth. Near the epicenter blast, winds would have been up to 1,000 miles an hour a few miles from the blast. Any grass, trees, buildings, would disappear in a nano second, and lakes and rivers would have their water blown out from the blast.
Since a meteor has a 71% chance of hitting oceans than dry land, coastal areas would be a dangerous place with tsunami waves up to hundreds of miles inland and a thousand feet high hitting land.
If this is a concern for those who want better chances of survival from large meteor strikes, living in the middle of the country on higher elevation have better odds IMHO.
Great thought provoking article. Cataclysmic events such as this have happened many times in the past and will happen again and again until the end of time, whenever that will be.
No one, not even one stupid, in-bred, government/banking cartel idiots can store away enough food and supplies to see them through the cataclysmic events and nuclear winter that will be created by a massive asteroid hitting the Earth. Their bunkers will become their graves while they and all their stored up supplies will become the topic of discussion for Archeologists 10,000 years from now. They can watch all the Bear Grylls and reality TV survival shows and read all the survival books they want but in the end they will perish just like the rest of us. There is Geological and Archeological evidence all over the world that supports this assertion.
The people that are most likely to survive such a cataclysmic event are the one’s already living under harsh conditions with little or nothing. They are the folks that are already hardened from harsh environs and have become experts at living by their wits and abilities. They are the ones that have already developed the strength in both body and spirit, to survive such an event.
Anyone who wants to survive such an event should move to an area in the extreme north and live with the Inuits for a decade. Living that lifestyle may give you a fighting chance. Otherwise, all one can do is live for today, prepare for tomorrow and pray such an event never happens during their lifetime. At best, make sure you have adequate extreme cold weather gear along with a whole lot of whiskey because you’ll need it. That’s if you are not at or near ground zero. Just saying.
Interesting. I never really had asteroids all that high on my list of worries. I do most of my planning around humans and what they might do. It might be willful blindness on my part but I think I would go crazy (or crazier) if I worried about everything. I guess if you have contingencies for something like Yellowstone going up then it would overlap into asteroid strike what with the after-effects being similar.
So Chicken Little had it right. The sky does fall. And yeah, we can’t prep for everything. I live in an area that will be subject to a major tsunami if the Cascadia fault lets go. I’m out of the historical inundation zone but who really knows how far inland the next one would go. We pay our money and we take our chances. In the meantime I live in one of the most beautiful areas in the country in a climate where it’s never to hot and never to cold. It’s a trade-off but one I’m willing to make.
That’s not asteroids, it’s really spy satellites keeping an eye on us all. LOL! How’s that prayer go? God, grant me the ability to change the things I can, accept the things I can’t and the knowledge to know the difference. Don’t know about you, but there’s nothing I can do beyond normal prepping about an asteroids strike so I’m just not going to worry about it.
NOTE: I posted this out of my general interest regarding ‘space’ and astronomy… not so much having to do with ‘fear mongering’ ;) There’s not much of anything that we can do about an asteroid strike!
I just found it fascinating how many ‘rocks’ are out there – and how we’re in a sort of ‘shooting gallery’.
Some say a group of astrophysicist have met their Waterloo because they were about go public with some info about some incoming objects.
The Vatican has underwritten the cost of the largest Thermal Telescope and placed it inside a country that is known to keep secrets from their citizens, it’s located on top of Mt.Gramham in Arizona!!! WHY??? This site is being guarded by DHS!!! The cost 2.3 Billion could have built hospitals and schools in poor countries!!!
One individual, Gil Broussard, set out to disprove info about Planet X, and ended up uncovering evidence to has changed written history of earlier events and how they came about!! Gil’s common sense analogy, Biblical history and Oriental history has prompted some to attempt to discredit him, but have they been proven wrong!!
The bottom line I guess is prepare as much as we can with supplies, and in Prayer.
Ken,
Your article was not “fear mongering” and not inappropriate. Most asteroid strikes are from very small objects and over 70% strike the ocean. Others strike areas with little population such as deserts and tundra. Most break up in the atmosphere before hitting the earth.
The “Earth Impact Effects Program” I recommended above gives you a chance to see the effects of asteroids and comets of different sizes, composition, velocity, and angle of impact. It also tells you the odds (relative to past history) of a similar object hitting the earth. Experiment a little with the website. Be sure to check out the odds for each of your criteria. You will see that an object large enough to remain intact (and not break up) is very rare. Even then, it is likely to hit some place other than where you are.
If an object falls on your head, you will not survive, but you can prepare for an object hitting nearby, by making sure you are too far from a large body of water to be affected by a tsunami, making sure your house can withstand high winds, having a storm shelter, stockpiling supplies, etc. Shatterproof glass is a good idea if you can afford it as is a home that is as fireproof as possible. Those same measures will also give some protection against hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires.
Your article was interesting and appropriate.
A few days ago someone suggested a article about how far inland a tsunami from the Cascadia fault might reach. I think that would be a very good idea. It would tell not only how far inland the tsunami from a Cascadia earthquake might reach, but also how far the tsunami from an asteroid striking the Pacific Ocean might reach. We already know from your previous article about tsunamis on the east coast how far inland a tsunami from an object hitting the Atlantic Ocean might reach.
The New Madrid Fault is also another area of concern that FEMA has prepped for. The potential damage to Miss. River bridges would devastate our economy by splitting this country in half and shutting down many Interstate Hwys. as well as shutting down the largest inland port in the world.
The levee system that runs from Baton Rouge to the Gulf could see liquification of the soil that would devastate a very high percentage of the US oil refineries and chemical plants. This likely would create the largest environmental disaster this earth has ever seen!! It would also destroy the pipe line system that connects most of these sites together, so it wouldn’t be confined to just each plant site!!! In south Louisiana where the Refineries and Chemical Plants are not, the land is devoted to growing sugar cane, rice and wildlife refuges. Residential land is only about 20%.
This industrial mecca has provided recession proof jobs with excellent pay for many decades because the products are a very important part of the global market place.
All of this would disappear if the New Madrid Quake happens!!
Space and the deep oceans are pretty fascinating and some of the greatest inventions known to man have come from the exploration of them. Those are some really awesome videos. Thanks for sharing.
Being into Astronomy and living in one the most “clear seeing” areas in the US/World I do and have spent many of nights at 2-3:00AM with my eyes stuck to a nice binocular-telescope. It’s a beautiful and dangerous universe we all live in on this “Third Rock From the Sun”. It also gives one more of a reality of how truly insignificant we really are, how small we are in the Universe and how truly meaninglessness the everyday worries can be.
The scientist in me often has a way of taking the brain on a joy ride at times wondering how utterly fantastic of times we live in, look at all of the knowledge we have at our fingertips, even Ken’s Asteroid map is something that even 40-50 years ago was unheard of, and yet here we are discussion how to be prepared for “what if”.
I know for a simple fact that if/when an Asteroid of any significant size (think 1-mile) strikes the old rock we’re most likely going to go by the way of the Dinosaurs….. Only the cockroaches will survive, again. Just the facts people, just the facts.
Now, with that said, it’s been around 25 million years since the last “major” impact, are we overdue?, maybe, but so are the earthquakes and the Tsunami or any other disaster you want to think of. And come to think of it, so is my electric bill HAHAHA.
I agree with Ken, ohhhhh boy that’s a first :-) :-) ,if/when that big-en decides to smack up up-side the head, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, PS forget about those BS movies of blowing it up with a nuke, ain’t going to happen. Period. BUT the science and technology behind this is fantastic. I mean, just look at all those rocks out there, would make Thumpers Wall a lot easier to build if he had those stacked up.. HAHAHA
Good article Ken, a fantastic break from the “normal” prepping stuff.
Thanks
NRP
PS; check out Google Sky, it’s fascinating.
That is it, I am eating chocolate!
If knowledge is the most important part of prepping, then knowledge about our environment, as today’s article, is about as normal as you can get. Your risk assessment may suggest losing a job is more likely than an asteroid strike, but if the asteroid hits on the other side of the globe we could have 6 months to a year and a half before the change in the weather affects crops where we live. We could do a lot in that time perhaps.
Short of an direct asteroid hit on us, I’d be worried more about the New Madrid Fault or the Cascadian Subduction Zone. Although not wiping out the country, the economic damage and cost would seriously affect all of us in the country.
The biggest natural disaster in the United States would be an eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera. If erupting as a VE8, a super-volcano, as it did 600.000 years ago, it would affect almost all of the United States. Millions would die, and sadly, DaisyK, you’d be toast within the first day and NRP probably within the second.
That information comes from the movie Super Volcano which you can find on YouTube as well as documentaries on the New Madrid Fault and the Cascadian Subduction Zone. All very fascinating. Remember, knowledge is power and talking about different scenarios is the essence of prepping.
Talking lessens fear and prepares us better so we don’t freeze when something happens. I know it does for me.
So, the funniest part of the movie mentioned above is when Americans near Mexico flee to the Mexican border and the Mexicans won’t let us in the country! Till we pay them off!
Thanks, DaisyK for the link to Seismic Monitor. Will bookmark. And just discovered that the most earthquakes greater than 4.0 in the past 30 days have occurred in…Oklahoma. As soon as the fracking removes all available oil from below ground the state will turn into a sinkhole. Ain’t running there to escape the super-volcano, for sure.
And why can’t we shoot a rocket to destroy an asteroid if we see it in time? We can go to the moon but we can’t shoot a rocket on a particular trajectory? What am I missing here? (I’m not a scientist, obviously).
Anyway, thanks for the interesting article, Ken. Got me to thinking.
@ Ladywest
“NRP probably within the second. “
Well I always said I was going to go out with a flash… Just never figured the “flash” would be me HAHAHA…
Sort of like w HUGE popcorn kernel LOL, gata have fun my friends, gata have fun. I agree with old lady, I’m eating chocolate, with a Gin Chaser….
NRP
PS; Shooting down a rock traveling at 20,000 MPH with a rocket going 1/2 that speed might be a probability, BUT once you break that 10,000 tons of rock or ice into smaller pieces, than what??? Also, you tell me one single .gov OR world agency that has the “smarts” enough to do that…. Plus if ya hit it with a Nuke 300 miles up, wellll isn’t that called an EMP? Plus we only really know of what??? maybe 1/100 of the “dangerous” asteroids out there, and know where they are? But noooo, we will spend $TRILLIONS on everything else BESIDES Science….
LadyWest:
I knew when I relocated her from Colorado that I was putting myself in a place where I would die instantly if Yellowstone exploded. I prefer that than to dying slowly like NRP would.
As NRP said, shooting an asteroid or comet would break it into many pieces. They say that many small pieces would be worse than one large one. But I am not so sure. It is going to break up, anyway, because when it hits our atmosphere at those high speeds, it is like hitting concrete. So it seems to me that, depending on the size of the monster, breaking it up first by our rocket and then having it break up again from hitting our atmosphere would possibly result in many small meteor-like pieces that would make a great light show and not do much harm. Again, it depends on the original size.
But hitting it with a nuke would be a bad idea. Then all those pieces would be radioactive. I don’t think we would worry about the EMP effect. We wouldn’t wait until it was only 300 miles away or even 3,000 miles away. To do any good, we would have to hit it millions of miles away and then we would be protected from the EMP effect by our magnetic field.
I THINK. Actually, I don’t know. I suppose all the scientists on this site will correct me in a minute. I will keep watching this site for the replies from those much smarter than I am.
Breaking it up with a bomb would cause many small pieces. I’ve no idea about how many of them would be irradiated. I’m relatively certain that the trajectory of most of those pieces would be changed and most of them wouldn’t hit the planet. Maybe we wouldn’t have to hit it to change it’s course. A close enough detonation might be enough to deflect it. Like they say, close only counts in horse shoes, hand grenades and thermonuclear weapons.
Wasn’t there a movie or something about trying to break up a meteor/asteroid? Seems like your then bombarded with lots and lots of smaller stuff.
This article just goes to show us how small and insignificant Earth is in comparison to the whole of the Universe. The Universe is a very, very violent place. We don’t know all of the secrets within and we will never have that information. Only GOD knows. Prepare. Out here.
@NRP
It’s to be read…”within the second (day). You’ve got plenty of time to eat chocolate followed by several gin chasers. Interesting combination.
@Ladywest
At least now I’m up to a day…. LOL…That’s a LOT of chocolate and Gin :-)
NRP
There was a movie about this. Space Cowboys I believe.
NRP…I can picture you, in a selfless act of bravery, hurtling thru space, riding a rocket of valor, to save all of humanity…..Sucking chocolate and gin thru a tube in your space suit, waving a giant tube of Preparation H towards the doomsday space rock saying..
“The label says it makes hemorrhoids disappear….It should do the same for asteroids….right!!!
A few years ago I invested in a really nice telescope that even included computerized sessions to share with the grand-kids. Since we live in the middle of no where there is NO ground light pollution regardless of time of year. The grand-kids absolutely love to enjoy the night sky….and with the telescope can really go where no fellow schoolmate might have gone. It is a true pleasure. Kinda scary, but certainly an adventure. Nice article Ken.
The coolest experience I ever had as a kid was going to one of the big telescopes on Mauna Kea on the big island…