the eyes of the world today stunned by this image this was debris from a meteor racing toward earth
streaking across the sky there crashing into the ground in those woods actually it was an asteroid
scientists say it blew by last week at a distance they describe as a close shave the risk in any one
year is very low but it does happen and if it really did come about on our watch it could end
civilization it almost seems like news reports and claims of asteroids lurking around the milky way
have become something of a norm every other month we hear about the latest asteroid that may lead to
galactic death and end our planet as we know it while most of these are false alarms every once
in a while a well-guided scientist or astronomer gives us information that we wish we hadn't heard
the stuff that makes your blood quicken and electricity that makes your spine tingle
welcome to fact nominal and today we're going to take a look at what just flew past earth and what
might be trailing in its wake a close encounter coming at us from the outer reaches of the solar
system has a is traveling at very high velocity it has a tremendous amount of kinetic energy
will release a hundred million megatons of energy it plows through the atmosphere in a second or two
whether it's a deep ocean or not doesn't matter it's so much bigger than even the depth of the
deepest ocean that it just blasts out back in April of this year the world witnessed an
event that could have changed the course of human history an asteroid known as 2021 GW4
hurled towards earth at 18,700 miles per hour over eight times faster than the SR-71 Blackbird
the impending asteroid was identified by scientists at the Mount Lemmon survey just
north of Tucson Arizona they are a part of the superordinate project known as Catalina Sky Survey
which aims to locate galactic formations that could pose a threat to earth
while the summit tracked the impending asteroid's trajectory it was reported that
it missed our home planet by only 12 000 miles to give you an idea of just how close that is
most stationary satellites used for tv and communication orbit the earth at 22,000 miles away
the asteroid that was first located on April 8th was approximately 3.5 to 7 meters long
ranging from an suv size to a large school bus capable of large-scale destruction on impact
experts reported that this particular asteroid was way closer than anticipated astronomer and founder
of the virtual telescope project Jean Lucamasi said that it was an exceptionally close encounter
he went on to say that it is very rare for an asteroid the size of 2021 g4w to be so close
to earth's surface out of all the objects roaming around the earth's surface in 2021
this one was by far the closest to our planet while most people could not spot this particular
asteroid with a naked eye nasa reported that its relatively small size was the reason why
but even such a small asteroid is more than capable of causing destruction on our planet
if it got any closer to the earth's surface most asteroids pass by earth without causing harm
but there have been instances where these galactic forces have not been so forgiving
the Tunguska event shortly after seven in the morning on June 30th
1908 the people of Vanuvara Siberia noticed the bluish bright light zipping across the skyline
within a minute cloudy skies turned to red hot fire and a large shock wave exploded onto the
earth's surface knocking people off their feet and shattering windows within hundreds of miles
known as the Tunguska event this was the largest reported asteroid explosion near earth's surface
with an explosion equivalent to 185 Hiroshima bombs the blast flattened more than 80 million
trees in seconds in an area spanning nearly 800 square miles but left no crater eyewitness reports
claim that at least three people had tragically lost their lives after the explosion as well
this event is the largest impact event ever recorded on earth one capable of wiping out
an entire metropolitan city what is interesting about the event is that scientists and experts
were not able to prove whether it was an asteroid or a comet that had entered the earth's atmosphere
the most widely accepted scientific explanation is that a rocky asteroid or comet entered
earth's atmosphere and then disintegrated with a bang about three to six miles or
five to ten kilometers above the ground however if this were the case it would likely have left
behind rocky fragments after blowing up like the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk Russia did
since there weren't any smoking gun remnants of a cosmic visitor ever found a team of researchers
has proposed a new theory they believed that a large iron meteor hurtled toward earth and came
just close enough to generate a tremendous shockwave but then the meteor curved away
from our planet without breaking up with its mass and momentum carrying it onward through space if
you think that's far-fetched there are even more bizarre theories that it could have been a crashed
ufo or a black hole collision with earth whatever it was let's hope it doesn't pay another visit
should we worry uncertainty uh in this they wanted you know an immediate answer is it going to hit us
for the 40 that we have not yet found i can tell you nothing one could hit tomorrow a a threat
which has a very low probability all it takes is one and we are history out of the hundreds of
asteroids that have passed earth in recent history there's one that has stolen the spotlight and
raised concerns within the scientific community Asteroid Bennu also known as 101955 Bennu is a
carbonaceous asteroid that has a 1 in 1,750 chance of impacting earth during the years of 2178-2290
furthermore researchers were also able to identify September 24th 2182 as the most significant single
date in terms of a potential impact you may be thinking that those are better odds than you
winning the lotto and you're right but should we be concerned about this looming danger
to put it into perspective these odds are akin to flipping a coin and having the first 11 attempts
land heads or any four random people sharing a birthday in the same month the odds of this are
actually one in 1750 exactly or throwing a dart at a dartboard with your eyes closed and hitting
a bullseye if we were to look at data from the past the earth's atmosphere has faced these sorts
of projections multiple times currently there are over 2,000 potentially dangerous near-earth
asteroids or neas that are being monitored 158 of them have a diameter of more than
one kilometer or 3280 feet making them two and a half times taller than the empire state building
but let's not forget that it doesn't take a massive asteroid to cause widespread damage
an asteroid that was only 32 feet in diameter exploded 15 miles above the bering sea in december
2019 with the force equivalent to 10 hiroshima atomic bombs the scary part no international or
national space organization had detected the small celestial object before it disintegrated above the
unsuspecting earth even as the late great physicist stephen hawking stated back in 2018
in his book brief answers to big questions an asteroid collision will be the biggest threat to
our planet earth's insurance policy like we have seen in the past the earth has had to battle mass
extinctions it has been debated that in the last 500 million years there have been five major mass
extinctions that have led to 50 of the population to be completely extinguished a catastrophe of
biblical proportions would lead to the reshaping of civilization would we ever be able to rebound
how long would it take the possibility of large-scale destruction begs the question
how can we ensure these collisions are avoided the asteroid impact and deflection assessment is
a project to tackle near-earth objects and stir them away on a potential path that may avoid
collision with our planets ada who work with nasa believe that it would require years of preparation
in order to deflect such astronomical objects not only do these efforts require years of
warning beforehand it takes decades to stir away the objects after the process has started
for now these two agencies are humanity's best hope of tackling such a crisis in the near future
so what do you think do we have enough resources to protect earth from a global catastrophe
what would happen if an asteroid were to impact a city like los angeles or new york
city tell us in the comments and once again thanks for watching fact nominal