Astronomers Discovered 100 New Asteroids - Earth Is in the Way - video Dailymotion

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Astronomers just found 100 new asteroids, and guess what? Some of them are flying a little too close for comfort! 🌍💥 These space rocks were hiding in a tricky-to-spot area between Earth and the Sun, making them hard to detect until now. Scientists are now keeping a close eye on their paths to see if any could pose a real danger in the future. The good news? We have more tools than ever to track and possibly deflect them if needed. But still, it's a wild reminder that space is full of surprises—and Earth is right in the middle of it all! 🚀🔭  Credit: Asteroid Day / YouTube Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

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00:00So, how do you feel about cooking? Nah, pasta and burgers are overrated. How about something

00:06more exotic, or rather, more cosmic? So, the recipe is simple. Take a team of enthusiastic

00:12astronomers and add some old images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Stir really well,

00:19and you'll get a shocking number of tiny asteroids in the asteroid belt between Mars

00:23and Jupiter. Yummy! The highlight of this dish is the direction

00:27in which some of the asteroids are moving, because in their way, there's our poor planet.

00:33Are we doomed just because you decided to cook? Now, the asteroids I'm talking about

00:38are much smaller than the massive space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs, but they can

00:43still cause considerable damage. They range in size from as small as a bus to as big as

00:49a stadium. But even those small ones pack quite a punch. Let's look at a recent dramatic

00:54example. It happened on February 15, 2013. A small asteroid just tens of feet wide exploded

01:02in an airburst over Chelyabinsk in Siberia, releasing an insane amount of energy. Many

01:08people witnessed and recorded the event, and it gave scientists vital clues. New computer

01:13models helped scientists reconstruct the size, speed, and impact of the Chelyabinsk meteor.

01:19It was likely an asteroid, about the size of a 5-story building, exploding from 15 to

01:2518 miles above Earth's surface with an enormous, incomparable force. The blast shattered a

01:31million windows and hurt over 1,000 people. Fortunately, it wasn't powerful enough to

01:36cause too much damage. But it gave us an idea about how dangerous an airburst can be.

01:43An airburst occurs when an object explodes high in the atmosphere, never striking the

01:48ground but releasing enough energy to devastate the area.

01:52But back to the small asteroids. The most dangerous thing about them is that they hit

01:57the Earth far more often than the larger ones, about 10,000 times more frequently. To make

02:03matters worse, their small size makes them harder to detect in advance, leaving little

02:08time for preparation if one is heading towards Earth.

02:12Now let's travel back in time. Uh-oh, dinosaurs! Too far back. Ah, there we go!

02:18A team of astronomers is working on a special method to find small asteroids in telescope

02:23images that were originally taken to study distant stars. Using this method, they've

02:29looked through thousands of JWST images of a star system called TRAPPIST-1. It's located

02:3540 light-years away and is one of the most studied systems outside our Solar System.

02:40Now while analyzing these images, they discovered 138 new asteroids in the main asteroid belt,

02:47plus 8 they already knew about. And guess what? Among the newly found asteroids, 6 seem

02:53to have been pushed into paths that could bring them closer to Earth. Who did it? Well,

02:59probably nearby planets. Are they holding a grudge against Earth?

03:03Interestingly, scientists thought they'd find just a few new asteroids, but the number

03:08was much higher than they expected. Yet, it's no wonder. Right now, they're exploring

03:13a part of space they didn't know much about before.

03:17Now let's talk about the hero of the day, the James Webb Space Telescope. It's especially

03:22good at finding small asteroids because it can detect their heat. These asteroids give

03:27off infrared radiation, which is much easier to see than the faint sunlight that reflects

03:32off their surfaces. This technology allowed scientists to spot the smallest asteroids

03:37ever seen in the main asteroid belt. The asteroids they found are pieces left over from collisions

03:43between bigger space rocks. Finding them helps astronomers understand the history of the

03:48asteroid belt and improve methods for tracking small asteroids that could threaten Earth.

03:54The researchers are planning to use James Webb to observe other star systems for at

03:59least 500 hours. They expect this work to uncover thousands more small asteroids in

04:04the Solar System. Other advanced telescopes, like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile,

04:10will also help. Starting in 2025, this observatory will use the world's largest digital camera

04:16to photograph the southern sky every night for at least 10 years. Each image will cover

04:22a huge area of the sky, about 40 times the size of the full Moon. The observatory might

04:28find up to 2.5 million asteroids in just 6 months, almost doubling the number we know

04:33about.

04:36Recently NASA has identified two small asteroids. They were supposed to pass near Earth on December

04:4216, 2024. Luckily, neither posed any danger to our planet. The first asteroid was 71 feet

04:49wide, about the size of a large airplane, and was traveling at 10,800 mph. The second

04:56asteroid was slightly smaller, 56 feet wide, but it traveled faster, at 14,700 mph. But

05:03hey, even though this time the danger has passed, who knows what the future will bring.

05:10It may sound weird these days, but astronomers didn't really care much about small asteroids

05:15for a rather long time. They thought of them as just random space debris that got in the

05:20way of observing stars. Some even called them sky parasites. But now, the way we see

05:26these little space rocks has completely changed. You see, until recently, we could only spot

05:32really big asteroids, those over a mile wide. The smaller ones just blended into the background

05:38noise and telescope images. But then, a clever trick appeared where multiple images of the

05:44same part of the sky were combined, making those faint small objects finally stand out.

05:50The data from certain telescopes, along with the James Webb Space Telescope, helps us improve

05:56planetary defense. But there's more to it than just protecting our planet. Studying

06:01these small asteroids also teaches us about how the Solar System evolved. There are so

06:07many of them because they're fragments from collisions between bigger space rocks. One

06:12researcher has said, this is like looking at old data in a new way. These small asteroids,

06:18which people used to think of as space junk, are crucial for understanding our Solar System

06:23and even preparing for whatever the future holds.

06:27Among those hundreds of millions of rocks orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt between

06:31Mars and Jupiter, some are especially worrisome. They come close enough to Earth for it to

06:36be quite concerning. NASA classifies asteroids that orbit within 30 million miles of our

06:42planet as near-Earth objects, and those could pose a serious threat if they were to collide

06:48with our planet. Right now, NASA is closely monitoring an asteroid named Bennu. This is

06:54a fairly large space rock, measuring about 1600 feet across. It could, potentially, crash

07:01into Earth in 159 years. First, the astronauts spotted it in 1999. So currently, experts

07:08believe that there's a small chance Bennu could drift into Earth's orbit and collide

07:13with our planet by September 24, 2182. Would it be bad?

07:18Well, to put it in perspective, Bennu is taller than the Empire State Building. If it hit

07:24Earth, it would generate 1,200 megatons of energy, an amount so massive that nothing

07:30on Earth could generate that. NASA scientists are particularly concerned about a tiny chance

07:37that Bennu could pass through a gravitational keyhole during a flyby in the 22nd century.

07:43This keyhole is a region in space that could set the asteroid on a path that brings it

07:48directly to Earth. Now, Bennu flies by Earth every 6 years and has had 3 close encounters

07:54with us, in 1999, 2005, and 2011. Right now, scientists estimate that the chance of Bennu

08:02hitting Earth by 2182 is about 1 in 2700, more than 5 times greater than the chance

08:09of being struck by lightning. Although the chances of Bennu colliding with Earth are

08:13very low right now, this space rock is still classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid

08:20because it might come as close as 4.65 million miles to Earth.

08:25This asteroid is another space rock that we need to keep an eye on. It's a near-Earth

08:30object about 1,100 feet across, and it was discovered in 2004. Initially, it was considered

08:37one of the most dangerous asteroids ever detected. Apophis quickly gained attention because experts

08:43believed it could pose a serious threat to Earth because of its close approach to our

08:47planet in 2029. However, after further study of its orbit, astronomers determined that

08:53there was no risk of a collision for at least a century. Well, we can all breathe easier

08:59now, can't we? That's it for today! So, hey, if you pacified

09:03your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends! Or, if you

09:08want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side of life!

Astronomers Discovered 100 New Asteroids - Earth Is in the Way

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