Can We Protect the Planet From an Asteroid Speeding Towards It?

Experts in planetary defense are developing ways to protect the planet from asteroids, large or small.

By Sara Novak
May 5, 2022 9:30 PMMay 5, 2022 9:31 PM
Asteroid
(Credit: IgorZh/Shutterstock)

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The most famous asteroid to collide with Earth is the Chicxulub crater, which hit the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago. It’s known for wiping out the dinosaurs, along with three quarters of life on the planet. Other huge craters like the Vredefort crater in South Africa and the Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Canada were even larger and likely barreled toward us a couple billion years ago.

In more recent years, meteoroids have hit us, the asteroid’s smaller cousin. Tunguska hit Siberia in 1908 and lit up the sky as far away as London; and Chelyabinsk, another Russian hit, was caught on tape in 2013.

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