Hubble Telescope's observations detailed by Brian Cox
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In a Youtube video discussing the science behind the latest Netflix hit Don’t Look Up, Prof Cox spoke about the probability of an asteroid impact on the Earth. He believes that humans take their existence for granted because even though asteroid impacts are often low probability events, scientists can never be certain that an asteroid will not enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
He warned that even the smallest of these can have a deadly impact.
Prof Cox said: “If you look outside on a clear night at the clear skies, it looks like the universe is peaceful.
“Nothing changes, nothing happens. But that really is an illusion. The universe is a violent place.
“In the last few decades, we’ve started to monitor asteroids. There are tens of thousands of big ones across the earth’s orbit. Any of them can hit us.
“Just to give a sense of the energy these impacts create- even smallish objects- 10-20 metres across- deposit the energy of 20-50 Hiroshima bombs.
“I think we take our safety and our existence on this planet for granted. Impacts happen.”
Prof Cox said this kind of event could “threaten a city, or a country, or a continent, or civilisation”.
He added: “The reason we ignore them immediately is because they do not happen very often. But low probability events happen.
“Just to give a sense of the energy these impacts create- even smallish objects- 10-20 metres across- deposit the energy of 20-50 Hiroshima bombs.
“I think we take our safety and our existence on this planet for granted. Impacts happen.”
Prof Cox said this kind of event could “threaten a city, or a country, or a continent, or civilisation”.
He added: “The reason we ignore them immediately is because they do not happen very often. But low probability events happen.
“The thing about probability is that they’re not certainties. Until we see one coming, and until we can one’s orbit, we can’t say with any certainty that the next one will hit.”
To be clear, there is currently no known threat of an asteroid colliding with Earth in the next century.
NASA is constantly watching the cosmos, categorising any Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO) if they could pose a threat to life on Earth.
And experts at Planetary Defence Conference have been running drills for years should an asteroid head towards Earth.
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Occasionally, asteroids can also make “close approaches” to Earth, but this does not mean they are going to strike.
NASA previously said: “As they orbit the Sun, NEOs can occasionally approach close to Earth.
“Note that a ‘close’ passage astronomically can be very far away in human terms: millions or even tens of millions of kilometres.”
Most of these objects fly well clear of Earth and NASA charts out their orbits for hundreds of years in advance.
The space agency recently launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test DART planetary defence mission.
It will test the idea that a spacecraft could nudge a potentially dangerous asteroid and change its path enough to protect Earth from impact.
Didymos and Dimorphos are no threat to Earth, but are a perfect target for this experiment.
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