The United States reveals the giant explosion of a meteor over the Bering Sea

A huge fireball exploded in December with a power ten times greater than that of the atomic bomb of Hiroshima. The information has now been published by NASA at a conference in the United States.

A gigantic fireball exploded in the Earth 's atmosphere in December, the statement said.
NASA This is the second largest explosion of its kind in 30 years and the largest since the one that took place in Chelyabinsk, Russia, six years ago.

However, until now, the incident has gone unnoticed, as it happened over the Bering Sea, in the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.

When it exploded, the space rock generated 10 times the energy released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Lindley Johnson, NASA's global defense officer, said that such an explosion occurred only two or three times a hundred years ago.

Shield of water

Around noon local time on December 18, the asteroid went through the atmosphere at a speed of 32 km / s, on a steep seven-degree path.

The meteor, an extension of several meters, exploded 25.6 km from the surface of the Earth, with an impact energy of 173 kilotons. "This equates to 40% of the energy released in Chelyabinsk, but as it pbaded over the Bering Sea, it did not have the same kind of effect and that did not appear in the news, "said Kelly Fast of the Earth's Near-Earth Observation Program. from NASA.

"It's another thing we have for our defense: our planet is full of water." Fast spoke about the incident at the 50th Global and Planetary Science Conference that was held in Woodlands, United States, between March 18 and 22.

"Problems without pbadports"

Military satellites have detected the explosion last year and the US Air Force has transmitted this information to NASA.

Johnson explained that the fireball had crossed an area close to the routes used by commercial aircraft between North America and Asia.

For this reason, researchers have been in contact with various airlines to find out if they saw the event or not.

In 2005, Congress asked NASA to identify by 2020 90% of asteroids close to Earth of a height of 140 meters or more.

Space rocks of this size have been called "problems without pbadports" because they should affect whole regions if they collide with the Earth. However, scientists believe that this task will take at least another 30 years.

Once an object in approach is identified, NASA has successfully calculated the location of the impact, based on accurate data on its orbit.

Space rocks of this size have been called "problems without pbadports" because they should affect whole regions if they collide with the Earth. However, scientists believe that this task will still take at least 30 years

For example, in June 2018, the 3-meter small asteroid LA 2018 was discovered by an observatory located in Arizona, United States, eight hours before the impact.

The near-Earth object study center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) determined its orbit precisely, and these data were used to calculate the area of ​​likely impact. .

The information showed that the rock would probably have an impact in southern Africa. As the calculations indicate, the fireball was recorded by the security cameras of a farm over the Botswana skies. Later, fragments of the space object were found in the area.

surveillance

The most recent explosion, however, shows that large objects can collide with the Earth without warning, highlighting the need to improve surveillance techniques.

In 2005, Congress asked NASA to identify by 2020 90% of Earth 's asteroids of a height of 140 meters or more

A more robust observation network will depend not only on telescopes on Earth, but also observatories in space. A project under development requires the launch of a telescope called NeoCam, to distinguish and characterize potentially dangerous asteroids larger than 140 meters in size.

"The idea is to get as close as possible to the goal proposed by Congress to NASA to find 90% of the asteroids close to Earth 140 meters or more," said Amy Mainzer, chief scientist of the JPL NeoCam project.

If the observatory does not go into space, projections indicate that it will take several decades to achieve this goal with the existing tools on the ground, he added. Although, adds the researcher, it could be accelerated with an infrared telescope.