Despite the potentially catastrophic results of an asteroid hitting Earth, it appears that these space rocks’ trajectories are relatively predictable due to the way they are affected by gravitational forces.
As NASA and ESA move to gauge humanity’s ability deflect asteroids that might threaten to collide with our planet, a pair of authors have provided a rather explicit description of what might happen if one of those space rocks actually makes it to the surface, the Daily Express reports.
In their book titled “What Does Rain Smell Like?”, meteorologists Simon King and Clare Nasir explain that the impact of an asteroid with a diameter ranging from 25 meters to about 1 kilometer would cause “damage on a local scale”, whereas a collision with a rock bigger than that would lead to destruction “on a global level”.
The authors noted, however, that asteroids, just like other “large objects in space”, are subject to gravitational forces and therefore have their own orbits, which makes their trajectories “relatively predictable”.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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