The development of technologies, with the help of which it became possible to study space in detail, allowed mankind to learn a lot of information about the space surrounding our planet. As it turned out, many objects move around the Earth: these are not only stars, there are a large number of smaller celestial bodies, called asteroids. But, despite the fact that in size they cannot be compared even with the smallest of the known planets, for humanity they are the most dangerous space formations. Moreover, history knows asteroids that hit the earth in past.
Recently, reports about objects that may soon collide with the Earth began to appear in the media with noticeable periodicity. In 2013, Apophis, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most dangerous asteroid, approached the Earth. Today, the Internet is replete with reports of an approaching celestial body called Florence. However, scientists report: this time everything will go fine and there will be no collision.
But the approach of bodies to our planet does not always end so happily. Some of them still overcome the atmosphere and fall to the earth's surface.
Asteroids that have fallen to earth. Huge crater in Africa
Photo: Economictimes.indiatimes.comWhen the solar system was very young, collisions of objects of different sizes were not uncommon. The proof of this is the surface of the Moon and the planets, which lack a “natural shield” – the atmosphere.
Our planet has also seen many such disasters in its lifetime. Traces of the most ancient of them were discovered by scientists. The cosmic body that “kissed” the Earth 3.3 billion years ago was truly gigantic in size - its diameter was about 50 km. For comparison, the famous Apophis, which humanity feared quite recently, is only 250-400 meters in diameter.
Photo: antikleidi.com An asteroid that fell in South Africa caused enormous destruction. The shift of tectonic plates, an earthquake that reached a power of 10 points, a tsunami, the earth's surface burned for thousands of kilometers - terrifying phenomena, evidence of which scientists still find.
Asteroids that have fallen to earth. Sudbury is Canada's source of wealth
Photo: Roogirl.com The "space bomb", which hit the Earth about 1.8 billion years ago, pierced the earth's crust to the mantle, turning the inner layers to the surface. Its fragments scattered over a great distance.
But the modern inhabitants of the planet, born much later than the catastrophe that occurred, were even able to benefit from the collision. The Sudbury region is one of the largest mineral deposits in Canada. And the soil, rich in minerals left behind by magma, is ideal for agriculture.
Asteroids that have fallen to earth. Chiklusub - Death of the Dinosaurs
Photo: Isbn-10.xyz 66 million years ago, the Earth was very different from what we see today. It was inhabited by creatures that can now only be found in films. At that time, dinosaurs were the masters of the planet.
For a long time, no one could understand what caused the extinction of the dominant species at that time. And only in the 20th century it was suggested that the disappearance of many thousands of living beings is a consequence of the fall of a huge celestial body. 
Photo: Dinocreta.com
It is believed that the Earth collided with a very large asteroid. A blow of enormous force provoked many catastrophes that led to the almost complete disappearance of life. Of course, a small part of living beings (mostly small in size) was able to adapt to the dramatically changed conditions. But the dinosaurs are gone forever.
The place where the asteroid fell is a crater located near the city of Chiklusub, which received the same name as this settlement. Judging by its size, the body that collided with the ground had a diameter of 10 km.
Asteroids that have fallen to earth. Tunguska meteorite - the mystery of the century
Photo: baricada.ro At the beginning of the 20th century, or rather in 1908, a space object rushed to the surface of the earth, which later became known as the Tunguska meteorite. Residents of settlements located in the immediate vicinity of the crash site could observe many unusual phenomena associated with this event: nights as bright as day, thunder in a cloudless sky and a grandiose explosion.
But the crater from the fall of a celestial body could not be found. This fact caused a great resonance in the scientific community. Scientists have put forward many theories, ranging from the landing of an alien ship to the fall of an icy comet. None of them has yet been recognized as official.
Asteroids that have fallen to earth. Chelyabinsk disaster
Photo: News.pn An unexpected event happened on February 15, 2013. An unnoticed asteroid flew up to the Earth and collided with its surface near Chelyabinsk, one of the largest industrial centers of Russia.
Photo: Chinadaily.com.cn The fact that the appearance of this celestial object was not predicted by scientists is explained by the fact that it flew up to our planet from the side of the Sun, and it was impossible to notice it with a telescope. It's scary to even think what would happen if the dimensions of the asteroid were not 6 m in diameter, but much larger. Indeed, even the explosion of such a relatively small cosmic body is several dozen times greater than the explosion of a nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, although its consequences were not so catastrophic.
Often the onset of the end of the world is associated precisely with a collision with a large asteroid. It remains to be hoped that mankind will never see such a catastrophe. But, given the number of objects that annually fly dangerously close to the Earth, the likelihood that someday a large meteorite will still crash into it is very high.
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The fall of an asteroid to Earth is a scenario typical for disaster films. However, this is not a science fiction plot with a set of main characters and a nuclear bomb on a mission to save the planet.
the fall of an asteroid to Earth is a mechanism for triggering a catastrophe
The impact of an asteroid on planetary life is a fact of science. There are obvious craters on Earth, the Moon and Mars that show us a long history of large objects hitting the planet.
Here on Earth, the most famous asteroid attack is the one that struck flora and fauna 65 million years ago. This asteroid is believed to have released catastrophic amounts of moisture and dust into the atmosphere. These were such gigantic amounts of dirt that they blocked access to.
Poisoning by combustion materials and a drop in temperature on a planetary scale provoked the extinction of dinosaurs. In fact, the eerie event on Earth was caused by the fall of a group of asteroids.
Any asteroid falling from the sky will release a huge amount of energy upon impact with the planet, so trouble on one scale or another is still expected. We have already voiced one example of the consequences - the fall of an asteroid once killed a lot of animals and plants, and powerful dinosaurs, including, although rodents, for example, survived a catastrophe named .
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF THE ASTEROID FALLS TO EARTH?
For comparison: in 2028, asteroid 1997XF11 - a gloomy kilometer-long celestial rock in diameter - will pass from the center of the Earth at a distance of about 900,000 kilometers. But if something changes in its orbit, then it will crash into the surface of the planet at about 48,000 km / h.
According to experts, the energy of the explosion will be 1 million megatons per bomb. It is very likely that such an asteroid will destroy most of the life on the planet.
It's hard to imagine a 1 million megaton bomb, so let's look at a slightly smaller size. Let's say an asteroid the size of a cottage hit the Earth at a speed of 48,000 km/h. It would have an amount of energy roughly equal to the bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima - 20 kilotons.
An asteroid like this would demolish reinforced concrete buildings up to half a kilometer in diameter, scattering wooden structures up to 1.5 to 2 km. Even such a “small” relatively small stone will cause significant damage.If the collapsed asteroid is the size of a 10-story eight-access building, then it will release an amount of energy equal to serious nuclear bombs - about 25 megatons. Such an asteroid will blow away reinforced concrete buildings up to 10 km in diameter, completely destroying a small city.
What can an asteroid "carrying" 1 million megatons do? This asteroid has an energy that is 10 million times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He is able to equalize everything at a distance of 200 to 500 kilometers (here we must also take into account the folds of the terrain). In other words, such an asteroid would cause severe damage, perhaps at a distance of 10,000 - 15,000 kilometers.
The amount of dust and debris thrown into the atmosphere will block the sun's rays, but even before this terrible event, it will destroy many living forms of the planet. If a large asteroid hits in the ocean, it will create huge tidal waves hundreds of meters high, which will completely clean up the coastlines.
In other words, if an asteroid impact occurs, it will be a really bad day, no matter how big a rock falls from heaven to us.
Many scientists believe that this asteroid impact caused the mass extinction 65 million years ago, and serves as a stark reminder of the asteroid threat. Let's hope this never happens and we don't witness an epic nightmare like the dinosaurs.
Asteroids, which in the future may approach the Earth at a distance equal to 7.5 million km, are considered potentially dangerous for the Earth. Our planet has more than once collided with these cosmic bodies. Today we will talk about how dangerous the fall of an asteroid to Earth is and is there a possibility of a large-scale catastrophe in the foreseeable future? Let's start with a little historical background.
An asteroid (from the Greek "star-like", "star") is also called a minor planet. It is a celestial body, the size of which exceeds 30 km. Some of them have their own satellites. Many asteroids travel through our solar system. 3.5 million years ago, a huge number of asteroids fell to Earth, which led to global changes.
Traces of an ancient asteroid
In the spring of 2016, in Australia, geologists discovered traces of the fall of an asteroid, the diameter of which was about 30-40 km. That is, in size it is commensurate with a small satellite. The fall caused an 11-magnitude earthquake, tsunami and massive destruction. It was probably one of the asteroids, as a result of which not only the beginnings of life were formed on the earth, but also the entire diversity of the biosphere was formed.
There is also an opinion that the mysterious disappearance of dinosaurs was due to the fall of a large asteroid to Earth. Although this is just one of many versions...
It is interesting! The ancient shock was formed as a result of a meeting with a meteorite. Its depth once reached 20 km. The fall of the meteorite caused a tsunami and climate change similar to nuclear winter. In addition, for up to 16 years on Earth, the temperature could drop by 26 degrees.
Chelyabinsk meteorite
The fall of an asteroid to Earth in February 2013 has become one of the most discussed incidents not only in Russia, but throughout the world. The asteroid, whose mass reached 16 tons, partially burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, but a relatively small part of it fell near Chelyabinsk, fortunately flying over it.
In that year, he flew over the Ural city, which served as the basis for his name. The body itself turned out to be quite ordinary and consisted of chondrites, but the time and place of its fall aroused interest. None of the asteroids that fell to Earth did such damage, since they did not fall in such close proximity to a densely populated area. The mass of the meteorite was 6 tons. Falling into the lake caused broken glass in 7,000 buildings. 112 people were hospitalized with burns, several more people turned to doctors for help. In total, the shock wave covered 6.5 thousand square meters.
The huge damage caused by the asteroid could have been much more significant if the heavenly stone had fallen not into the water, but onto land. Fortunately, the fall of the asteroid to earth did not turn into a large-scale catastrophe.
How dangerous is the fall of a large meteorite to Earth?
According to the calculations of scientists, the fall of an asteroid to Earth can lead to huge damage if a body about 1 km in size falls on the Earth's land. First of all, a funnel with a diameter of about 15 km is formed, this will cause dust to enter the atmosphere. And this, in turn, can lead to large-scale fires. Dust, heated by the sun, will reduce ozone levels, speed up chemical reactions in the stratosphere, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the planet.
Thus, the consequences of an asteroid falling to Earth are very serious. The global temperature of the Earth will fall by 8 0 C, causing an ice age. But in order to cause the extinction of mankind, the asteroid must be 10 times larger.
Giant danger
Recently, scientists have found that centaurs should be included in the list of potential threats to our planet - these are giant asteroids with a diameter of 50 to 100 km. The gravitational field of other planets every 40-100 thousand years throws them towards our Earth. Their number has now increased dramatically. Is it possible for a giant asteroid to fall to Earth in the near future, scientists are constantly calculating, although calculating the trajectory of the fall of centaurs is a very difficult task.
In addition, the list of potential threats to the Earth includes:
- supervolcanic eruption;
- global pandemic;
- asteroid impact (in 0.00013%);
- nuclear war;
- ecological catastrophy.
Will an asteroid hit Earth in October 2017?
The main issue that currently worries scientists is the danger posed by an asteroid, the size of which is 2 times larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite. There is a possibility that an event will occur in October 2017 that will cause a much larger scale of disaster than the impact in 2013. Astronomer Judith Rees claims that the diameter of the asteroid reaches 40 km. It was dubbed object WF9.
A dangerous celestial body was discovered by scientists in Hawaii back in 2012. That year, it passed at a very close distance from the Earth, and on October 12, 2017, it will approach the most dangerous distance for our planet. Scientists believe that if the fall of the asteroid to Earth really takes place, then the British will be the first to see it.
At the moment, scientists are actively studying the possibility of a collision. True, the probability of an asteroid falling to Earth is very small and, according to researchers, is 1 in a million. However, it is still there.
Constant danger
It should be noted that certain asteroids of various sizes constantly fly past the Earth. They are potentially dangerous, but very rarely actually fall to Earth. So, at the end of 2016, a body flew past the Earth at a distance of 2/3 of the distance from a small truck.
And January 2017 was marked by the passage of a celestial body reaching the size of a 10-story building. He flew within 180 thousand km from us.
Last year, astronomers more than once or twice predicted the fall of a celestial body to Earth. In February, NASA predicted that a giant asteroid would hit Earth. It was supposed to fall into the ocean and cause a supertsunami.
It was also pointed out that this would happen near Great Britain, as a result of which the seaside residents were quite agitated. It was supposed, but no one can say anything about this for sure. Because a celestial body can either pass by our planet, or still fall on it.
When a meteorite will fall to Earth in 2018: to date, assumptions about asteroids falling to Earth, fortunately, have not come true
In February, it passed - a meteorite flew past and NASA's assumptions, fortunately, did not materialize.
Then they began to scare earthlings in March, then an asteroid was supposed to land on Europe, hundreds of times larger than Chelyabinsk - it also swept through. Then - in October, TC4 40 meters in diameter, from the fall of which it was assumed that there would be a trace in the form of a huge crater - again lucky, it did not fall.
Astronomers usually have approximate data - both in size and along the trajectory of a celestial body. After all, asteroids glow in flight, and therefore it is quite difficult to accurately determine their size. Moreover, once in the Earth's atmosphere, the mass will be less due to the partial combustion of the cosmic guest in it.
Fortunately, today, all celestial bodies that threatened mother Earth either flew at a distance from her, or burned up in the layers of the atmosphere and turned into a safe starfall, which is a meteor shower and does not threaten earthlings.
So it was at the end of 2017, when astronomers scared us with the approach of a meteorite threatening to fall on Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan or Samara. Approximately the same trajectory was in February 2013 for both the Chelyabinsk guest from space and the Yekaterinburg one - it seems that the celestial bodies like this route.
Fortunately, not all of them fall to the Earth, most often, they pass tangentially to our planet and do no harm. Astronomers and astrophysicists are carefully watching all the celestial bodies migrating in the Universe at different points on the Earth. After all, it is possible that the orbit of this or that meteorite will change for some reason, and then it may well become a dangerous guest for our planet.
When a meteorite falls to Earth in 2018: scientists are closely watching the trajectory of a giant asteroid
This difficult question remains relevant this year as well. Judging by the meteor shower calendar, 2018 is no safer than last year - the probability of meteorites falling to Earth remains just as high. But scientists will be able to say for sure something about the fall of a cosmic body only after it enters the earth's atmosphere, scattering as a meteor shower. And until that moment, scientists can only guess which of the asteroids may be dangerous for earthlings.
For example, the meteorite that successfully missed the Earth at the end of 2017 is flying towards it again - it changed its orbit when it collided with another meteorite flying near the Moon. Now its flight path is oriented directly towards the Earth. But how the journey of this space guest will end, no one can say for sure yet.
Here is a video confirming that a meteorite could hit Earth in 2018:
When this can happen, only time will tell. If it finds itself in the Earth's atmosphere, it may burn up, perhaps crumble into meteor showers. It is possible that TV 145 also threatens the Earth - scientists are closely watching this giant asteroid, which has already flown quite close to the Earth.
Apocalyptic scenarios of asteroids falling on our planet for the vast majority of people are the result of the imagination of science fiction writers. However, common sense says that such an event, sooner or later, will happen.
And very soon, on October 12, 2017, asteroid 2012 TC4 will pass in a rather dangerous proximity to our planet. Despite the fact that the chances of a collision with the Earth are extremely small ( about 0.00055%), such a turn of events cannot be completely ruled out.
What is known about the 2012 asteroid TC4
July 27 and 31, and then 5th of August this year, experts from the European Space Research Agency observed an asteroid approaching Earth 2012 TS4. The observation was carried out through a complex of 8.2-meter telescopesEuropean southern observatories.
We are talking about the first observations of this small asteroid since its first discovery - that is,since October 4, 2012. At the time of the last observation, the asteroid 2012 TC4 was still very far from our planet, at a distance of about 56 million kilometers.
WithIn 2012, this TS4 could not be observed from Earth. The fact is that the apparent stellar magnitude (that is, a measure of the brightness of a celestial body) of this asteroid was 26,4 , which is very, very small (for example, for the brightest celestial bodies, including the Sun, negative values this measure).
An object with a similar magnitude to 60 billion times dimmer than the planet Saturn as seen from Earth. The asteroid is approaching at a speed 14 kilometersper second getting brighter. At the closest approach to the Earth, the apparent magnitude of the asteroid 2012 TC4 will be only 13.
Recent observations of the asteroid made it possible to clarify information about its size ( from 12 to 27 meters in diameter) and location, and enabled scientists fromCenter research near-Earth objects(CNEOS) NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to calculate its future orbit and the distance at which it will fly past our planet at the moment of closest approach to it.
The obtained results of calculations indicate that the closest approachasteroid 2012 TC4 will happen to Earth October 12 this year: the space object will fly by at a distance equal to 43500 kilometers from our planet (this is about one eighth of the distance of the moon from the earth). There are also less optimistic forecasts, which, however, are not intended to cause panic: according to them, a space object will not approach the Earth closer than a distance of 6800 kilometers.
Where will the asteroid hit on October 12?
NASA scientists are looking forward to the upcoming asteroid flyby, planning to use the event as an opportunity. test the network of NASA observatories who are working on a planetary defense program. As part of the program for tracking potentially dangerous objects for our planet, further observations of the asteroid are planned both by NASA and other astronomers.
Michael Kelly(Michael Kelley) , head of the TC4 Asteroid Observation Program at NASA Headquarters, stressed that today the efforts of scientists are aimed at studying this asteroid in order to test the operation of the worldwide asteroid tracking network. According to him, this will allow assessing the possibility of determining a potential real threat from such space objects, as well as assessing the ability to respond.
Is it possible to prevent the threat of collision in the future?
In order to prevent the threat of an asteroid colliding with our planet, it is necessary to detect the corresponding space object. for several years before the expected fall.
Objects diameter up to several hundred meters are unlikely to cause a global catastrophe, although they can cause significant damage when they enter infrastructure.
Another thing is asteroids with a diameter several kilometers: the fall of such an object to Earth with a high probability can lead to a global catastrophe with the subsequent mass extinction of all life.
At the moment, the activities of many planetary protection programs are reduced to the observation and identification of potentially dangerous space objects. Moreover, they began to catalog these objects back in 1947 when it was founded Minor Planet Center at the University of Cincinnati, USA.
To date, we can talk about a dozen programs that track near-Earth objects as part of a global project called "Space Security Watch" However, in reality, these programs are weakly related to each other.
It turns out that humanity today is absolutely defenseless against the threat of the fall of a large space object, which can threaten the death of all life? Alas, it is. However, a start has been made, future programs are being developed, telescopes are being built, high precision tracking systems.
And already now we can talk about the successful results of this work, which made it possible to predict the time and place of the fall of a space object before its entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
October 6, 2006 telescope "Catalina sky review", located in Arizona, USA, an asteroid approaching Earth was detected 2008 TC3. Thanks to the data obtained, the corresponding calculations were carried out, which made it possible to accurately determine the time and place of the asteroid's fall: a space object with a diameter of 4 meters fell through 19 hours after being discovered in the north of Sudan, in the Nubian desert. If the asteroid had chosen a large city as the site of impact, 19 hours could have been enough to evacuate residential areas at the alleged impact site.
Another question is what humanity is capable of countering the threat from the sky, provided early recognition? Now, in fact, nothing. However, intensive work is underway to develop potential options for repelling the threat, among which we can mention the detonation of a nuclear explosive device (the topic is disclosed in the blockbuster "Armageddon"), the so-called kinetic ram (a huge artificial object crashing into a small asteroid), an asteroid gravitational tug, focused solar energy, an electromagnetic catapult, and a number of other options.
Fallen asteroids
September 1This year, NASA specialists observed the approach of the largest space object in the history of observations - asteroid (3122) Florence. The fall of this object on the surface of our planet would hardly have left at least some chance for its inhabitants.
However, Florence passed at a distance of about 7 million kilometers from the earth. It is reported that today it is possible to observe asteroids with a diameter up to 10 meters. Why, then, did the approach of the famous Chelyabinsk meteorite, whose diameter was, according to various estimates, from 17 to 20 meters?
It is estimated that from the moment the Chelyabinsk meteorite entered the atmosphere until the moment of its destruction, 32.5 seconds. According to NASA experts, this object belongs to chondrites of asteroid origin(contains silicate elliptical or spherical formations, chondrules). This material poorly reflects light, so it was not spotted in space. In addition, it entered the atmosphere from the side illuminated by the Sun.
All these factors prevented the discovery of this object. Not a very optimistic statement, given the fact that chondrites make up over 90% from the number of all stone meteorites falling to the Earth.
Asteroids of the solar system
As the case with the Chelyabinsk meteorite showed, falling objects (similar to it in size, or smaller) can be expected in any moment in time. If we talk about large asteroids, then already in August 2032 an object with a diameter of over 400 meters.
In this case, the probability of a collision will be much higher than in the case of an asteroid. 2012 TS4 (about 0.002%). In total, in the relatively foreseeable future (within two hundred years), a about 20 potentially hazardous asteroids, the largest of which is up to 1200 kilometers.
In fact, every month astronomers discover dozens of asteroids However, not all of them pose a potential danger to our planet. The estimated probability of the Earth colliding with an asteroid comparable in size to the Chelyabinsk meteorite or asteroid 2012 TC4 allows us to conclude that such an event occurs once every 100 years.
Objects diameter up to 1 meter fall to the earth's surface every year. But asteroids several kilometers in diameter, like the one that allegedly destroyed the dinosaurs, visit our planet. once every 20-200 million years!
