asteroid are an unlikely but present danger and both NASA and ESA , the European Space Agency , are forever monitoring the heavens as intimately as their budgets permit to look for these space hazard . TheCenter for Near Earth Object Studiesis constantly update its database and is currently monitor five upcoming asteroid that will pass very close to Earth in the coming twelvemonth .
None of the object appear to be life-threatening , with only one getting close than the Moon to Earth . Still , two of these target were only discovered in the last few calendar month , which is a stark admonisher of how argus-eyed we want to remain .
The first close passage will happen in July , where an object known as2017 BS5will fell at about 1.1 million kilometer ( 700,000 miles ) from Earth , just over three time the Earth - Moon distance . This is the biggest asteroid that will whiz by us and is approximate to be 40 to 90 meters ( 130 to 295 feet ) across .
The closest one will be in October , passing as close as 11,500 kilometre ( 7200 miles ) , which is less than one - third of the distance to geostationary orbit . This rock , known as2012 TC4 , is between 12 and 27 meters ( 39 and 88 foot ) across and uranologist are keeping a close centre on it .
The next three object will surpass at over 1.3 million klick ( 820,000 mile ) from Earth , coming to their near plan of attack on December 3 , February 24 , and April 2 . They are all quite small object as well , each less than 40 meter ( 130 feet ) .
The February asteroid known as2017 DR109was only key last February . If this object was on a hit course it would leave very little clock time to organize a reaction . Althoughcuts to NASA ’s budgetmeans that the Asteroid Redirect Mission has been shelved , the quad agency is working hard get up for a likely impingement .
Last year , NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agencyran exercisesto simulate what they would do in eccentric of an asteroid shock . They are now design to conduct test with local representatives to understand how best to palliate damages and the likely red of life .
These preparation are right and event likeAsteroid Dayare great to raise cognizance about this globose threat , but scientists have also highlighted how awful unprepared we are for bombastic - scale events . At aconference last year , researchers discussed nation - of - the - art engineering science for asteroid redirection and death but foreground that currently , we would n’t be capable to use any of those .
So far we have been lucky , but it would n’t take much to end up like the dinosaurs .
