> Asteroids
All about asteroids for children: description and explanation with photos, interesting facts about an asteroid and meteorites, asteroid belt, fall to Earth, types and name.
For the little ones it is important to remember that an asteroid is a small rocky object, devoid of air, orbiting a star, and not large enough to qualify as a planet. Parents or teachers at school may explain to children that the total mass of asteroids is inferior to that of the earth. But do not think that their size is not a threat. In the past, many of them crashed into our planet, and this may happen again. That is why researchers are constantly studying these objects, calculating the composition and trajectory. And if a dangerous space stone is rushing at us, then it’s better to prepare.
Formation of asteroids - explanation for children
To begin explanation for children It is possible from the fact that asteroids are the residual material after the formation of our system 4.6 billion years ago. When it was formed, it simply did not allow other planets to appear in the gap between itself and. Because of this, small objects collided there and turned into asteroids.
It is important to children understood this process, because every day scientists are plunging deeper into the past. Two theories have been circulating lately: the Nice model and the Grand Tack. They believe that before settling into their usual orbits, the gas giants traveled through the system. This movement could have pulled asteroids out of the main belt, changing its original appearance.
Physical characteristics of asteroids - explanation for children
Asteroids vary in size. Some may be as large as Ceres (940 km wide). If we take the smallest, then it was 2015 TC25 (2 meters), flying close to us in October 2015. But children may not worry, as asteroids have little chance of heading towards us in the near future.
Almost all asteroids formed in an irregular shape. Although the largest ones can approach the sphere. They show depressions and craters. For example, Vesta has a huge crater (460 km). The surface of most is littered with dust.
Asteroids also go around the star in an ellipse, so they make chaotic somersaults and turns on their way. For the little ones it will be interesting to hear that some have a small satellite or two moons. There are binary or double asteroids, as well as triple ones. They are about the same size. Asteroids can evolve if they are grabbed by the planet's gravity. Then they increase their mass, go into orbit and turn into satellites. Among the candidates: and (Martian satellites), as well as most of the satellites near Jupiter, and.
They differ not only in size, but also in shape. They are solid pieces or small fragments bound together by gravity. Between Uranus and Neptune there is an asteroid with its own ring system. And one more is endowed with six tails!
The average temperature reaches -73°C. For billions of years, they have existed almost unchanged, so it is important to explore them in order to take a look at the primitive world.
Classification of asteroids - explanation for children
The objects are located in three zones of our system. Most of it is clustered in a giant annular region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This is the main belt, with more than 200 asteroids with a diameter of 100 km, as well as from 1.1-1.9 million with a diameter of 1 km.
Parents or at school should explain to children that not only the asteroids of the solar system live in the belt. Previously, Ceres was considered an asteroid until it was transferred to the class of dwarf planets. Moreover, not so long ago, scientists have identified a new class - "main belt asteroids." These are small stone objects with tails. The tail appears when they crash, break up, or in front of you is a hidden comet.
A lot of stones are located outside the main belt. They gather near the major planets in certain places (Lagrange point) where the solar and planetary gravity are in balance. Most representatives are the Trojans of Jupiter (in terms of numbers, they almost reach the number of the asteroid belt). They also have Neptune, Mars and Earth.
Near-Earth asteroids orbit closer to us than . Cupids come close in orbit, but do not intersect with the earth. The Apollos intersect with our orbit, but most of the time they are located in the distance. Atons also cross the orbit, but are inside it. Atyrs are the closest. According to the European Space Agency, we are surrounded by 10,000 known near-Earth objects.
In addition to the division into orbits, they also come in three classes in composition. C-type (carbonaceous) is gray and occupies 75% of known asteroids. Most likely, they are formed from clay and stony silicate rocks and inhabit the outer zones of the main belt. S-type (silica) - green and red, represent 17% of the objects. Created from silicate materials and nickel-iron and dominate the inner belt. M-type (metal) - red and make up the rest of the representatives. Consists of nickel-iron. Certainly, children should be aware that there are many more varieties based on composition (V-type - Vesta, which has a basalt volcanic crust).
Asteroid attack - explanation for children
4.5 billion years have passed since the formation of our planet, and the fall of asteroids to Earth was a frequent occurrence. To cause serious damage to the Earth, an asteroid would have to be ¼ mile wide. Because of this, such an amount of dust will rise into the atmosphere that will form the conditions of a “nuclear winter”. On average, strong impacts occur once every 1000 years.
Smaller objects fall at intervals of 1000-10000 years and can destroy an entire city or create a tsunami. If the asteroid does not reach 25 meters, it will most likely burn up in the atmosphere.
Dozens of potential dangerous strikers travel in outer space, who are constantly monitored. Some are pretty close, while others are considering doing so in the future. To have time to react, there should be a margin of 30-40 years. Although now more and more people are talking about the technology of dealing with such objects. But there is a danger of missing the threat and then there simply will not be time to react.
Important explain to the little ones that a possible threat is fraught with benefits. After all, once it was an asteroid impact that caused our appearance. When formed, the planet was dry and barren. Falling comets and asteroids left water and other carbon-based molecules on it, which allowed life to form. During the formation of the solar system, objects stabilized and allowed modern life forms to gain a foothold.
If an asteroid or part of it falls on a planet, then it is called a meteorite.
Composition of asteroids - explanation for children
- Iron meteorites: iron (91%), nickel (8.5% ), cobalt (0.6%).
- Stony meteorites: oxygen (6%), iron (26%), silicon (18%), magnesium (14%), aluminum (1.5%), nickel (1.4%), calcium (1.3%) .
Discovery and name of asteroids - explanation for children
In 1801, an Italian priest, Giuseppe Piazzi, was creating a star map. Quite by chance, between Mars and Jupiter, he noticed the first and large asteroid Ceres. Although today it is already a dwarf planet, because its mass accounts for ¼ of the mass of all known asteroids in the main belt or nearby.
In the first half of the 19th century, a lot of such objects were found, but they were all classified as planets. It wasn't until 1802 that William Herschel proposed the word "asteroid", although others continued to refer to them as "minor planets". By 1851, 15 new asteroids had been found, so the naming principle had to be changed by adding numbers. For example, Ceres became (1) Ceres.
The International Astronomical Union is not strict about naming asteroids, so now you can find objects named after Star Trek's Spock or rock musician Frank Happa. 7 asteroids are named after the crew of the Columbia spacecraft who died in 2003.
Also, numbers are added to them - 99942 Apophis.
Asteroid exploration - explanation for children
The Galileo spacecraft took close-up shots of asteroids for the first time in 1991. In 1994, he also managed to find a satellite orbiting an asteroid. NASA has been studying the Eros near-Earth object for a long time. After much deliberation, they decided to send a device to him. NEAR made a successful landing, becoming the first in this regard.
Hayabusa was the first spacecraft to land and take off from an asteroid. He set off in 2006 and returned in June 2010, bringing samples with him. NASA launched the Dawn mission in 2007 to study Vesta in 2011. A year later, they left the asteroid for Ceres and reached it in 2015. In September 2016, NASA sent OSIRIS-REx to explore the asteroid Bennu.
Most of them are located in a belt that stretches between the orbits of Jupiter and. The belt is shaped like a torus, and its density decreases beyond a distance of 3.2 AU.
Until August 24, 2006, Ceres was considered the largest asteroid (975x909 km), but they decided to change its status, giving it the title of a dwarf planet. And the total mass of all objects of the main belt is small - 3.0 - 3.6.1021 kg, which is 25 times less than the mass.
Photo of the dwarf planet Ceres
Sensitive photometers make it possible to study changes in the brightness of cosmic bodies. It turns out a light curve, from the shape of which you can find out the period of rotation of the asteroid and the location of the axis of its rotation. Periodicity is from several hours to several hundred hours. Also, the light curve can help in determining asteroid shapes. Only the largest objects approach the shape of a ball, the rest have an irregular shape.
By the nature of the change in brightness, it can be assumed that some asteroids have satellites, while others are binary systems or bodies that roll over each other's surfaces.
The orbits of asteroids change under the powerful influence of the planets, especially Jupiter influences their orbits. It led to the fact that there are entire zones where small planets are absent, and if they manage to get there, then for a very short time. Such zones, called hatches or Kirkwood gaps, alternate with areas filled with space bodies forming families. The main part of asteroids is divided into families, which are most likely formed fromcrushing larger bodies. These clusters are named after their largest member.
At a distance after 3.2 a.u. two flocks of asteroids are circling in Jupiter's orbit - Trojans and Greeks. One flock (Greeks) overtakes the gas giant, and the other (Trojans) lags behind. These groups move quite steadily, because they are at the "Lagrange points", where the gravitational forces acting on them are equalized. The angle of their divergence is the same - 60°. The Trojans were able to accumulate long after the evolution of various asteroid collisions. But there are other families with very close orbits, formed by the recent breakups of their parent bodies. Such an object is the Flora family, which has about 60 members.
Interaction with the Earth
Not far from the inner edge of the main belt are groups of bodies whose orbits may intersect those of the Earth and the terrestrial planets. The main objects include the groups of Apollo, Amur, Aten. Their orbits are not stable, depending on the influence of Jupiter and other planets. The division into groups of such asteroids is rather arbitrary, because they can move from group to group. Such objects cross the Earth's orbit, which creates a potential threat. About 2000 objects larger than 1 km periodically cross the earth's orbit.
They are either fragments of larger asteroids, or cometary nuclei from which all the ice has evaporated. In 10 - 100 million years, these bodies will surely fall on the planet that attracts them, or on the Sun.
Asteroids in the Earth's Past
The most famous event of this kind was the fall of an asteroid 65 million years ago, when half of everything living on the planet died. It is believed that the size of the fallen body was about 10 km, and the Gulf of Mexico became the epicenter. On Taimyr, traces of a hundred-kilometer crater were also found (in the bend of the Popigai River). On the surface of the planet, there are about 230 astroblems - large impact ring formations.
Compound
Asteroids can be classified according to their chemical composition and morphology. Determining the size of such a small body as an asteroid in the vast solar system, which also does not emit light, is extremely difficult. This helps to implement the photometric method - the measurement of the brightness of a celestial body. The properties and nature of the reflected light are used to judge the properties of asteroids. So, using this method, all asteroids were divided into three groups:
- carbonaceous- type C. Most of them - 75%. They do not reflect light well, but are located on the outside of the belt.
- Sandy- type S. These bodies reflect light more strongly and are located in the inner zone.
- metal- type M. Their reflectivity is similar to the bodies of group S, and they are located in the central zone of the belt.
The composition of asteroids is similar, because the latter are actually their fragments. Their mineralogical composition is not diverse. Only about 150 minerals have been identified, while there are more than 1000 on Earth.
Other asteroid belts
Similar space objects also exist outside the orbit. There are quite a lot of them in the peripheral parts of the solar system. Beyond the orbit of Neptune is the Kuiper belt, which contains hundreds of objects ranging in size from 100 to 800 km.
Between the Kuiper belt and the main asteroid belt is another collection of similar objects belonging to the "class of Centaurs". Their main representative was the asteroid Chiron, which sometimes pretends to be a comet, becoming covered in a coma and spreading its tail. This two-faced type is 200 km in size and is proof that there are many similarities between comets and asteroids.
Origin hypotheses
What is an asteroid - a fragment of another planet or protosubstance? This is still a mystery, which they have been trying to solve for a long time. There are two main hypotheses:
Planet explosion. The most romantic version is the exploded mythical planet Phaeton. It was allegedly inhabited by intelligent beings who had reached a high standard of living. But a nuclear war broke out, eventually destroying the planet. But the study of the structure and composition of meteorites revealed that the substance of only one planet is not enough for such a variety. And the age of meteorites - from a million to hundreds of millions of years - shows that the fragmentation of asteroids was long. And the planet Phaeton is just a beautiful fairy tale.
Collisions of protoplanetary bodies. This hypothesis prevails. It quite reliably explains the origin of asteroids. The planets formed from a cloud of gas and dust. But in the areas between Jupiter and Mars, the process ended with the creation of protoplanetary bodies, from the collision of which asteroids were born. There is a version that the largest of the small planets are precisely the embryos of the planet that failed to form. Such objects include Ceres, Vesta, Pallas.
largest asteroids
Ceres. It is the largest object in the asteroid belt, with a diameter of 950 km. Its mass is almost a third of the total mass of all the bodies of the belt. Ceres is composed of a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle. It is assumed that there is liquid water under the ice. A dwarf planet revolves around the Sun in 4.6 years at a speed of 18 km / s. Its rotation period is 9.15 hours, and the average density is 2 g/cm 3 .
Pallas. The second largest object in the asteroid belt, but with the transfer of Ceres to the status of a dwarf planet, became the largest asteroid. Its parameters are 582x556x500 km. The flyby of the star takes 4 years at a speed of 17 km / s. A day on Pallas is 8 hours, and the surface temperature is 164°K.
Vesta. This asteroid has become the brightest and the only one that can be seen without the use of optics. The dimensions of the body are 578x560x458 km, and only the asymmetric shape does not allow Vesta to be classified as a dwarf planet. Inside it is an iron-nickel core, and around it is a stone mantle.
There are many large craters on Vesta, the largest of which has a diameter of 460 km and is located in the region of the south pole. The depth of this formation reaches 13 km, and its edges rise above the surrounding plain by 4–12 km.
Evgenia. This rather large asteroid with a diameter of 215 km. Interesting in that it has two satellites. They were The Little Prince (13 km) and S/2004 (6 km). They are 1200 and 700 km away from Evgenia, respectively.
Study of
The beginning of a detailed study of asteroids was laid by the Pioneer spacecraft. But the first to take pictures of the objects Gaspra and Ida was the Galileo apparatus in 1991. A detailed examination was also carried out by the NEAR Shoemaker and Hayabusa apparatus. Their target was Eros, Matilda and Itokawa. Soil particles were even delivered from the latter. In 2007, the Dawn station departed for Vesta and Ceres, reaching Vesta on July 16, 2011. This year the station should arrive at Ceres, and then it will try to reach Pallas.
It is unlikely that any life will be found on asteroids, but there are certainly many interesting things there. You can expect a lot from these objects, but you don’t want only one thing: their unexpected arrival to visit us.
Asteroids are celestial bodies that were formed due to the mutual attraction of dense gas and dust orbiting our Sun at an early stage of its formation. Some of these objects, like an asteroid, have reached enough mass to form a molten core. At the moment Jupiter reached its mass, most of the planetosimals (future protoplanets) were split and ejected from the original asteroid belt between Mars and. During this epoch, part of the asteroids was formed due to the collision of massive bodies within the influence of the gravitational field of Jupiter.
Orbit classification
Asteroids are classified according to features such as visible reflections of sunlight and characteristics of their orbits.
According to the characteristics of the orbits, asteroids are combined into groups, among which families can be distinguished. A group of asteroids is considered to be a certain number of such bodies whose orbital characteristics are similar, that is, semi-axis, eccentricity and orbital inclination. A family of asteroids should be considered a group of asteroids that do not just move in close orbits, but are probably fragments of one large body, and were formed as a result of its split.
The largest of the known families may contain several hundred asteroids, while the most compact families may contain up to ten. Approximately 34% of asteroid bodies are members of asteroid families.
As a result of the formation of most groups of asteroids in the solar system, their parent body was destroyed, however, there are also groups whose parent body survived (for example).
Classification by spectrum
The spectral classification is based on the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, which is the result of the asteroid reflecting sunlight. Registration and processing of this spectrum makes it possible to study the composition of a celestial body and assign an asteroid to one of the following classes:
- Group of carbon asteroids or C-group. Representatives of this group consist mostly of carbon, as well as elements that were part of the protoplanetary disk of our solar system in the early stages of its formation. Hydrogen and helium, as well as other volatile elements, are practically absent in carbonaceous asteroids, but various minerals are possible. Another distinguishing feature of such bodies is their low albedo - reflectivity, which requires the use of more powerful observation tools than in the study of asteroids of other groups. More than 75% of the asteroids in the solar system are representatives of the C-group. The most famous bodies of this group are Hygiea, Pallas, and once - Ceres.
- A group of silicon asteroids or S-group. Asteroids of this type are composed mainly of iron, magnesium and some other rocky minerals. For this reason, silicon asteroids are also called stony asteroids. Such bodies have a fairly high albedo, which allows you to observe some of them (for example, Irida) simply with binoculars. The number of silicon asteroids in the solar system is 17% of the total, and they are most common at a distance of up to 3 astronomical units from the Sun. The largest representatives of the S-group: Juno, Amphitrite and Herculina.
An asteroid is a relatively small, rocky cosmic body, similar to a planet in the solar system. Many asteroids revolve around the Sun, and their largest cluster is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is called the asteroid belt. Here, is the largest of the known asteroids - Ceres. Its dimensions are 970x940 km, i.e., almost rounded. But there are those whose sizes are comparable to dust particles. Asteroids, like comets, are the remains of the substance from which our solar system was formed billions of years ago.
Scientists suggest that in our galaxy you can find more than half a million asteroids with a diameter of more than 1.5 kilometers. Recent studies have shown that meteorites and asteroids have a similar composition, so asteroids may well be the bodies from which meteorites are formed.
Exploring asteroids
The study of asteroids dates back to 1781, after William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus to the world. At the end of the 18th century, F. Xaver gathered a group of famous astronomers who were looking for a planet. According to Xaver's calculations, it should have been between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. At first, the search did not give any results, but in 1801, the first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered. But its discoverer was the Italian astronomer Piazzi, who was not even part of the Xaver group. In the next few years, three more asteroids were discovered: Pallas, Vesta and Juno, and then the search stopped. Only 30 years later, Karl Ludovik Henke, who showed interest in the study of the starry sky, resumed their search. Since that period, astronomers have discovered at least one asteroid a year.
Characteristics of asteroids
Asteroids are classified according to the spectrum of reflected sunlight: 75% of them are very dark carbonaceous asteroids of class C, 15% are grayish-siliceous class S, and the remaining 10% are metallic class M and several other rare species.
The irregular shape of the asteroids is also confirmed by the fact that their brightness decreases quite rapidly with increasing phase angle. Due to the large distance from the Earth and their small size, it is rather problematic to obtain more accurate data on asteroids. The force of gravity on an asteroid is so small that it is not able to give them a spherical shape characteristic of all planets. This gravity allows broken asteroids to exist as separate blocks that are held close to each other without touching. Therefore, only large asteroids that have avoided collisions with medium-sized bodies can retain the spherical shape acquired during the formation of the planets.
What is an asteroid? Sooner or later, every person who is interested in the study of space begins to ask this question. Wanting to find detailed information on this topic, people often stumble upon various scientific sites designed for an adult audience. On such portals, as a rule, almost all articles are replete with a huge number of scientific terms and concepts that are very difficult for ordinary people to understand. But what should schoolchildren or students do, for example, who need to prepare a report on the topic of space and formulate in their own words what an asteroid is? If this problem bothers you, then we recommend that you read our publication. In this article, you will find all the necessary information on this topic and get an answer to the question of what an asteroid is, in a simple and understandable language. Interested? Then we wish you a pleasant reading!
Origin of the word "asteroid"
Before we move on to the main topic of the article, let's dive into history first. Many are interested in the translation of the word "asteroid", and we could not ignore this issue. This concept comes from the Greek words aster and idos. The first is translated as "star", and the second - "view".
What is an asteroid
Asteroids are small cosmic bodies moving in orbit around the main star of our galaxy - the Sun. Unlike planets, they do not have the correct shape, large size or atmosphere. The total mass of one such body does not exceed 0.001 of the mass of the earth. Despite this, some asteroids have their own moons.
The first person who began to call such space objects the word "asteroid" was William Herschel. Among specialists, there is a special classification, according to which only those bodies whose diameter reaches 30 meters can be considered asteroids.
The largest asteroids in the solar system
The largest cosmic body of this type is an asteroid called Ceres. Its dimensions are so large (975 × 909 kilometers) that in 2006 it was officially given the status of a dwarf planet. In second place are the Pallas and Vesta objects, whose diameter is approximately 500 kilometers. Vesta is located in the asteroid belt (which will be discussed below) and can be seen from our home planet with the naked eye.
Research history
What is an asteroid? We think we have already dealt with this. And now we once again invite you to plunge into the jungle of our history in order to find out who stood at the origins of the study of the celestial bodies discussed in the article.
It all started at the end of the 18th century, when Franz Xaver, with the participation of more than 20 astronomers, began to look for a planet that should be located between the orbit of Jupiter and the orbit of Mars. Xaver had a goal to study absolutely all the bodies of the zodiac constellations known at that time. Some time later, the coordinates began to be refined, and the researchers began to pay attention to moving objects.
It is believed that the asteroid Ceres was accidentally discovered on January 1, 1801 by the Italian astronomer Piazzi. In fact, Xaver's astronomers calculated the orbit of this celestial object much earlier. A few years later, researchers also found Juno, Palada and Vesta.
Carl Ludwig Henke made a special contribution to the study of asteroids. In 1845 he discovered Astrea, and in 1847 Heba. The merits of Henke gave impetus to the development of astronomy, and after his research, new asteroids began to be found almost every year.
In 1891, Max Wolf invented the method of astrophotography, thanks to which he was able to recognize about 250 such space objects.
To date, several thousand asteroids have been discovered. These celestial bodies are allowed to give any names, but on condition that their orbit is accurately and accurately calculated.
asteroid belt
Almost all space objects of this type are located within one large ring, called the asteroid belt. According to scientists, there are about 200 minor planets in it, the average size of which exceeds 100 kilometers. If we talk about bodies that do not exceed a kilometer in size, then there are even more of them: from 1 to 2 million!
Due to frequent collisions, many asteroids in this belt are fragments of other similar cosmic bodies. This explains the fact that there are too few objects in the belt that have their satellites. But collisions aren't the only reason large asteroids don't have moons of their own. A special role in these processes is played by gravity changes caused by the formation of new objects after direct collisions, and the uneven distribution of the rotation axes of celestial asteroids. The only bodies that have direct rotation are the previously mentioned Ceres, Pallas and Vesta. They were able to maintain this position only due to their impressive dimensions, which provide them with a large angular momentum.
Asteroid and meteoroid. What is the difference
Talking about what the word "asteroid" means, this question cannot be ignored. A meteoroid is a solid celestial object that moves in interplanetary space. The main parameter by which a meteoroid and an asteroid are distinguished is their size. As mentioned earlier, only that cosmic body whose diameter reaches (or exceeds) 30 meters can be considered an asteroid. Meteoroids, on the contrary, are much more modest in size.
Another important factor is that asteroids and meteoroids, in fact, are completely different space objects. The fact is that the laws according to which they move in outer space are very different.
Asteroid Apophis
What is the asteroid Apophis? We think that among those who read this article, there are people who are interested in this issue. Apophis is a celestial object that is constantly approaching the Earth. This cosmic body was discovered in 2004 by scientists at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona. Its discoverers are Roy Tucker, David Tolenomi and Fabrizio Bernardi.
The diameter of Apophis is 270 meters, the average orbital speed is 30.728 kilometers per second, and the weight exceeds one ton.
At first, the asteroid was called 2004 MN4, but in 2005 it was renamed after the evil demon Apep from ancient Egyptian mythology. According to the beliefs of the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt, Apep is a huge beast that lives underground. In the view of the Egyptians, he was the real embodiment of evil and the main opponent of the god Ra. Every night, while traveling along the Nile River, Ra entered into a mortal battle with Apophis. The Sun God always won, and therefore a new day came.
Apep's Threat to the Earth
After the discovery of this celestial object, ordinary people immediately began to ask one single question: is Apophis dangerous for the inhabitants of the Earth? Experts' forecasts differ depending on the time period of rapprochement with our world in question. For example, in 2013 this celestial object flew at a distance of 14.46 million kilometers from the Earth, but already in 2029, according to scientists, it will approach our planet by 29.4 thousand kilometers. For comparison, this is below the altitude at which geostationary satellites are located.
Despite such a close distance, many researchers convince us that we have nothing to fear. Initially, the probability that Apophis will fall to Earth in 2029 was estimated at almost 3%, but now this probability is not considered at all. In the future, the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye. Visually, it will resemble a fast moving luminous dot.
Scientists also said that in 2029 this cosmic body could fall into a section of space in space in which the gravitational field of our planet could change the orbit of Apophis. In February 2013, NASA researchers announced that an asteroid could hit Earth in 2068. According to research results, after 2029, this object may fall into 20 such gravity sites. But here, too, scientists reassure ordinary citizens: the probability of a collision in 2068 is extremely small.
Despite such positive forecasts, the researchers say that you should never relax. The study of Apophis will continue further to determine the risks for all of humanity.
We think that we figured out what the asteroid Apophis is. Now let's take a more global look at the topic of a potential collision of the Earth with some space object.
What is the probability that the Earth will die from an asteroid impact?
There is an opinion among ordinary people that absolutely all asteroids pose a great danger to our planet. In fact, research by scientists shows that at the moment there is no such asteroid that could destroy the Earth.
Only those asteroids whose diameter exceeds 10 kilometers pose a serious danger to our planet. Fortunately, today all of them are known to modern astronomy, their trajectories are determined and nothing threatens the Earth.
Now you know about the meaning of the word "asteroid", the history of the study of these space objects, as well as the danger they pose to the planets. We hope that the information provided in the article was of interest to you.
