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A mesmerizing – and alarming – NASA animation demonstrates how dramatic the increase in Earth-like asteroids entering our solar system has become over the last 20 years.
The video, based on data collected by the NEO Studies Center, shows the enormous surge of space rocks towards the Inner Solar System
Near-Earth Objects (NEO) are asteroids and comets in orbit. which lie about 121 million miles (195 million km) from the sun, and about 30 million miles from the Earth's orbit around our star.
Data from January 1, 1999 to the end of January 2018 show the dramatic increase in asteroid discoveries in the solar system. The blue color represents asteroids close to the Earth, while orange indicates the asteroids of the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The images begin with faint spots around the solar system. NASA has established, which is now known as the Center for the Study of Near-Earth Objects in 1998, after a media frenzy around the discovery of the NEO 1997 XF11 asteroid.
"To this day, we still receive questions about the chances of XF11's impact in 2028," said CNEOS director Paul Chodas. "There is simply no chance that XF11 will affect our planet this year, or for the next 200 years."
Some 18,000 NEOs were detected, a discovery rate of 40 per week on a population of space rocks believed to be in the millions. The NEO observing program must still meet the ambitious goal set by Congress of finding 90% of NEOs by 460 feet and over by the end of 2020.
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