The end of the world won’t come from a swarm of deadly asteroid strikes, a new study explains. Astronomers have found that this doomsday theory is highly unlikely because there are fewer dangerously large asteroids near Earth than previously believed.
Researchers have always been wary of the number of asteroids hidden in the Taurid swarm, a collection of space debris drifting near Earth. The Taurid swarm is believed to be leftover waste from the Encke comet. The swarm is so large it can be seen on Earth during meteor showers in October and November.
Now, however, scientists believe the world can breathe a sigh of relief. The new research presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences revealed data from the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope confirming a lack of potentially life-ending asteroids within the Taurid swarm.
“We took advantage of a rare opportunity when this swarm of asteroids passed closer to Earth, allowing us to more efficiently search for objects that could pose a threat to our planet,” says Quanzhi Ye, an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland’s Department of Astronomy and study coauthor, in a media release. “Our findings suggest that the risk of being hit by a large asteroid in the Taurid swarm is much lower than we believed, which is great news for planetary defense.”
Before the study, astronomers predicted that the Taurid swarm would have several large space rocks left behind by a large object spanning 62 miles wide. If just one of those objects entered the Earth’s atmosphere, scientists projected that it would cause regional damage similar to the Chelyabinsk asteroid that landed in Russia and injured over 1,600 people in 2013. Although the impact wouldn’t wipe out life as we know it, scientists couldn’t dismiss that possibility altogether. It’s already happened before with the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs over 66 million years ago.
“Fortunately, we found that it’s likely there may only be a handful of asteroids—perhaps only nine to 14 of them—that fit this large size class in the swarm,” explains Ye. “Judging from our findings, the parent object that originally created the swarm was probably closer to 10 kilometers in diameter rather than a massive 100-kilometer object. While we still need to be vigilant about asteroid impacts, we can probably sleep better knowing these results.”
Source: https://studyfinds.org/earth-doomsday-asteroid-swarms/?nab=0