Asteroid that was seen hours before hitting Earth could help stop future impacts

GIANT asteroids that could potentially endanger the Earth can be spotted thanks to a system developed to see the rocks hours before impact.

The Scout monitoring system, a small piece of technology the size of a shoebox, may be able to save earth from catastrophic disaster.

2

2

Using new “Scout” monitoring technologies, scientists were able to spot an asteroid heading toward earth on March 11, and accurately predict its patterns.

Scientists at NASA and beyond have created high-tech machines that have the ability to warn us when deadly rocks are entering the atmosphere from space.

Using these technologies, scientists were able to predict exactly what time and where the asteroid would hit the earth- in this case, March 11 at 5.23pm off the coast of Greenland.

And their predictions were correct within seconds.

With these new ‘Scout’ monitoring technologies, scientists can be prepared for these potential disasters.

Scout, also known as Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, is a miniature spacecraft that flies around in space returns data back down to earth.

This data shows scientists potential threats and incoming threats. Scout is roughly the size of a shoebox.

“Using a science-grade camera, NEA Scout will obtain data that will help close gaps in knowledge about near-Earth asteroids,” wrote NASA on their website.

On March 11, a small asteroid heading toward earth was spotted by Hungarian scientist Krisztián Sárneczky.

This was the 64th “near-earth” astroid that Sarneczky has spotted during his career.

The March 11 asteroid was quite small – only six feet in length. Not large enough to have any sizable dangerous impact on the earth.

Scientists have named the baby asteroid “2022 EB5.” While 2022 EB5 didn’t pose much danger to society, it played an important role in the future of tracking potentially dangerous asteroids.

While this asteroid wasn’t deadly, it doesn’t take much for small asteroids to become large threats, capable of destroying towns.

“Tiny asteroids impact the Earth fairly frequently, more than once a year for this size,” NASA director Paul Chodas told BDNews24. “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

NASA has also begun doing research on the possibility of using nuclear weapons to stop any incoming asteroid threats.

In 1908, a 160-foot asteroid landed in Siberia and flattened 800 square feet of forest land.

These asteroids have the potential to put out 1,000 times more energy than the Hiroshima explosion.

With NASA scientists working together with scientists from across the globe, improving Scout technology will be an important step in making sure that the world is protected from future deadly asteroid encounters.