NASA scientist reveals when an asteroid hit Earth last time
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Do you know when was the last time an asteroid hit Earth? NASA scientist says that very small asteroids and other tiny particles hit our planet daily. However, it’s the big asteroids that we need to worry about, says NASA scientist Marina Brozovic.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
So, when was the last time an asteroid hit Earth? She says the answer depends on the impact of the asteroids as Earth gets hit all the time.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
The vast majority of these impactors are small and they just burn in the atmosphere.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
It was in 2013, that Russia experienced a momentous fireball event, the most significant in over a century. An asteroid, roughly the size of a small building, disintegrated approximately 20 kilometers above Chelyabinsk city.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Marina revealed that the fireball deposited a number of meteorites in the ground.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
The question is that what will happen if bigger asteroids hit us? Asteroids leave craters tens of kilometers wide and cause huge amounts of devastation.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Identifying such events requires going far back in time, and locating ancient craters is challenging due to extensive erosion, sediment accumulation, and some being submerged at the ocean's bottom.
Photo Credit: NASA
To summarize, Marina says, that small impacts occur frequently, as around 15,000 tons of space dust hits Earth annually.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
On the other hand, large impacts are incredibly rare, happening only once in millions of years. Having said that, the Tunguska event happened in 1908, just over a century ago.
Photo Credit: Pixabay
As such, there is some uncertainty involved and nothing can be said for sure especially as some asteroids manage to escape detection and fly by Earth at uncomfortably close quarters.
check here