Asteroids Skim By Earth #asteroid #science #scifibooks
NASA tracks asteroids! See thousands plotted on a diagram of the solar system by clicking here. But you’re most interested in those that pass close by Earth, aren’t you? Two are passing us September 11th, and an even bigger one September 12th.
The Asteroid Watch dashboard tracks asteroids and comets that will make relatively close approaches to Earth. The dashboard displays the date of closest approach, approximate object diameter, relative size and distance from Earth for each encounter. JPL/NASA Next Five Close Approaches
Holy smoke. A rock at least the size of an ordinary commercial jet that comes close – within 20 times the distance to the Moon – is potentially hazardous. While NASA can predict an asteroid’s current path, the calculations are complex, affected by all the planets, and things change thanks to collisions with other space rocks. Small bits of space debris rain down harmlessly on Earth every day, but someday, one of these big ones will hit, causing massive destruction.
Or not.
Maybe we can protect ourselves.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft just beamed back the first image of its target, the moonlet Dimorphos, as well as its body it orbits, the asteroid Didymos. DART is a planetary defense test mission designed to impact the moonlet to alter its trajectory around Didymos. If proven effective, this spacecraft design could potentially be scaled up to deflect an Earth-bound asteroid. space.com
Asteroids skip safely past Earth so often, even the media can’t maintain a state of panic. Hopefully, we have time to create Earth defenses.
In the meantime, science fiction shows us what could happen. Asteroid is the second book in my Winnie Bravo, Space Pilot trilogy. If a future space industry brings asteroids into lunar orbit, what could possibly go wrong? Click here now and join the adventure.
Special price through September 15th for all three kindles! Only 99 cents each, so claim your copies today. Click here now and don’t miss out.
Humanity’s future in space depends on audacious pilots, and it may help if they’re a bit crazy.
Winnie Bravo is brash, reckless, and more than a little annoying as she sets out to prove herself, careening from adventure to adventure with her partner never far away.
In orbit, across the Moon, and on Earth, she pursues the truth about a nefarious probe and a scoundrel who will stop at nothing. What she discovers brings her closer to the truth than she bargained for, and may get her killed, or worse, fired.
