A shocking map reveals small asteroids hit Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate more often that we would have imagined.
The map is a visual representation of data gathered by U.S. government sensors between 1994 and 2013, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported. The data suggested the Earth's atmosphere was often impacted by small asteroids, resulting in 556 fireballs over the course of two decades.
Almost all of the impacts recorded in the data disintegrated when they hit the Earth's atmosphere with the exception of the Chelyabinsk event, which was the largest outer space object to hit Earth in modern times.
These findings are significant because they could help scientists make more accurate estimated of the distribution and size of Near-Earth objects (NEOs). It could also help the scientists determine if there are dangerous NEOs lurking around our planet.
"Finding and characterizing hazardous asteroids to protect our home planet is a high priority for NASA. It is one of the reasons NASA has increased by a factor of 10 investments in asteroid detection, characterization and mitigation activities over the last five years. In addition, NASA has aggressively developed strategies and plans with its partners in the U.S. and abroad to detect, track and characterize NEOs. These activities also will help identify NEOs that might pose a risk of Earth impact, and further help inform developing options for planetary defense," NASA stated.
NASA is urging the public to help participate in the hunt for potentially-dangerous asteroids through the Asteroid Grand Challenge.
"NASA is also pursuing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) which will identify, redirect and send astronauts to explore an asteroid. Among its many exploration goals, the mission could demonstrate basic planetary defense techniques for asteroid deflection," NASA stated.
The map was released to the science community by NASA's Near Earth Object Program.
