Asteroid 2014 DX110 flew by Earth on Wednesday. The space boulder, measuring 98 feet from one side to another, came closer to our home world than the distance to the Moon.
This object raced past just 217,000 miles from our planet, traveling over 33,000 miles per hour. This may seem like a significant distance, but it is an extremely close call in astronomical terms.
The asteroid was only discovered a few days before it passed our planet. Next time, we may not be so lucky.
Millions of asteroids, leftover pieces from planet-building, float in the space between the worlds of our solar system. Around 20 sizable asteroids make close approaches to the Earth each year. In the last year, two have been observed striking the Moon. Although DX110 did not strike this time, these celestial bodies can be catastrophic when they strike our world.
NASA is attempting to catalog as many dangerous asteroids as possible, as part of The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, otherwise known as "Spaceguard."
When a dangerous asteroid is found, it may already be too late to do anything about it. Astronomers are considering several scenario for ensuring the safety of the planet if a large asteroid is found, heading toward our world. Blowing it up with nuclear weapons is not a good option. Doing so can just shatter the rock, turning a rifle shot into a shotgun blast. If there is adequate time, it may be possible to use lasers, to heat one side of the asteroid, changing its trajectory away from a collision course with Earth.
Free State in South Africa is the home to the Vredefort Crater, that stretches 118 miles across. This makes it the largest impact crater in the world. Researchers believe the feature was created two billion years ago.
In February 2013, a meteor 65 feet across exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk with the force of an atomic bomb. The shock wave caused serious damage to the area, and injured 1,100 people. If 2014 DX110 struck the Earth, it likely would have exploded miles above the surface, similar to the 2013 blast.
The worst scenario for asteroids is what happened to the dinosaurs. Around 65 million years ago, our planet was struck by a rocky object the size of Mount Everest. Over 90 percent of all life on the planet was extinguished by the impact, and resulting fires blacked out the Sun for years. Still, this was only the 8th largest impact known to have occurred during the history of the Earth.
Unlike humans, the dinosaurs weren't doing enough to watch out for dangerous objects from space.
