As if last month's
asteroid near miss and
Russian meteorite was not enough to get the world's attention, we have more asteroids heading our way. Tomorrow a 330-foot-wide asteroid called 2013 ET will make a near approach to the Earth, missing us by about 600,000 miles (or about 2.5 times the distance from the Earth to the moon). According to
news reports, this large asteroid was first detected on March 3rd, not giving us much time to worry had its trajectory been somewhat different.
Remember, 2013 ET is twice the size of last month's 2012 DA14, of which
NASA stated:
...if another asteroid of a
size similar to that of 2012 DA14 (about 150 feet across) were to impact
Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the
atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation.
Are we facing more risks as time goes by, or are we simply more aware of a scary situation that has always been out there? I would like to think it is the latter.
