{"id":26439,"date":"2023-12-04T22:59:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mormonmediareviews.com\/?p=26439"},"modified":"2023-12-04T22:59:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:59:52","slug":"boffins-eye-up-20k-near-earth-asteroids-up-to-25-miles-wide-to-stop-armageddon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mormonmediareviews.com\/world-news\/boffins-eye-up-20k-near-earth-asteroids-up-to-25-miles-wide-to-stop-armageddon\/","title":{"rendered":"Boffins eye up 20k near-Earth asteroids up to 25 miles wide to stop Armageddon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Space boffins are monitoring 20,000 near-Earth asteroids up to 25 miles wide to safeguard the planet from Armageddon.<\/p>\n

That is how many lumps of rock have escaped the main belt of 600,000 asteroids between Mars and Jupiter and nudged their way towards Earth's orbit, according to the European Space Agency. Scientists round the world have to watch them constantly to identify any on potentially deadly collision paths with the planet.<\/p>\n

Experts say 48.5 tons of space rock falls to Earth every day. According to NASA rocks smaller than 82ft burn up in the atmosphere sometimes creating shooting stars but causing little or no damage.<\/p>\n

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But impacts from larger asteroids can have disastrous consequences, according to science website Space.com. A giant asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out 80% of plant and animal species on Earth \u2013 including dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

That is why space agencies across the globe are constantly identifying and tracking potential threats.<\/p>\n

Near-Earth asteroids are defined as space rocks set to pass within 120 million miles of the Sun – meaning they are close to the planet's orbit. Boffins say the biggest danger currently comes from the 1,100ft-wide asteroid Apophis (corr) which they have been tracking since 2004.<\/p>\n

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