One twenty-four hours an asteroid may haveour name on it . No such asteroid is experience yet , but to prepare for the sorry , we really need to check that we ’re tracking everything .
So a report available onarXiv , from a squad of astronomers at the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts , will be some cause for concern . They say we ’ve lose one C of asteroid receive in the last few years , although do n’t care , it ’s not all bad news .
As pick up byNew Scientist , the study looks at the number of asteroid detected by the Minor Planet Center ’s Near - Earth Object Confirmation Page ( NEOCP ) between 2013 and 2016 . In total , about 17,000 near - Earth asteroids ( NEAs ) were found .
What ’s more concerning , though , is that more than 900 had been picture once , and never seen again in other view of the night sky . And if we want to keep an eye on all asteroid , we really involve to bring down this number .
The reason so many have been lost is the nature in which they are pass over . If a resume spots one , it could be hours before that discovery is announced , or until another scope or sketch is useable . In that meter the asteroid could have traveled across the sky and out of sight . With just one sighting , it ’s domain can not be cross – you really want four or more .
“ Because the initial tracklet [ asteroid ] can not be represented by a single eye socket , its positional uncertainty grows rapidly within a few 60 minutes of observation , ” the squad wrote in their paper .
“ Late entry can reduce the fortune of collect postdate - up data due to this growing precariousness , as well as to the day / night limitation and availableness of follow - up telescopes around the world . ”
There are other factors too . One is that the asteroid might simply be moving too fast to be dog , or that it ’s too dim . forged atmospheric condition can also hamper observations , as can the brightness level of the Moon on rare occasions .
What about that estimable news ? Well , the field ’s lead author Peter Vereš secern New Scientist that the big asteroids that could destruct Earth are “ basically all found ” . These are ones more than a kilometer in size of it , so there ’s no need to panic too much just yet .
Sure , a small asteroid like theChelyabinsk meteorover Russia in 2013 slips through the net every now and again . And we do really need to get good at tracking asteroids of all shapes and size , but wedon’t have sex of anysizeable stone that will hit us through the next C . Still , it ’s worth keeping an optic out .
