The number of near-Earth asteroids exceeds 30,000 marks

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the number of spaceships has increased. near earth asteroids It crossed the 30,000 mark. Such rocky bodies orbit the Sun at a distance of up to 45 million kilometers from our planet – putting them at potential (albeit very minor) risk of collisions, in astronomical terms.

Many of these have been discovered over the past decade, thanks to significant advances in monitoring tools. In total, about 1 million asteroids have been detected on Earth. solar systemIts highest concentration occurs in the belt between Mars and Jupiter.

To date, none of these near-Earth objects pose an impact threat in the next 100 years. However, space agencies around the world are constantly studying the orbits of asteroids to be able to act in time in the event of a possible collision.

NASA recently made history by conducting an asteroid deflection test for the first time. called the mission DART GAMEHe succeeded in changing the orbit of Dimorphos, a satellite 11 million kilometers from Earth.

Ground stations and space telescopes discover new asteroids each week, in addition to tracking the movements of previously detected rocky bodies to determine whether they are still harmless.

Examples include the Catalina Sky Survey, an astronomical observatory in Arizona, and the Very Large Telescope, the world’s largest set of telescopes in Chile. Although the Gaia spacecraft (from ESA) was launched to catalog stars in the galaxy, it also provides valuable data for the field.

Studies on space objects try to simulate the force of impact, as well as analyze their composition, size, speed, distance. Such an effort seeks to seek the best solutions to deal with a potential asteroid endangering Earth.