15,000 dangerous asteroids could wipe out cities worldwide, NASA scientist issues warning

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): A NASA scientist has issued a serious warning regarding Earth's safety. According to NASA planetary defense expert Kelly Fast, there are approximately 15,000 undiscovered asteroids surrounding Earth, and there is currently no concrete way to deal with them. Each of these asteroids has the potential to destroy an entire city.

According to the report, Kelly Fast said that the knowledge of these asteroids "keeps her up at night." She explained that the biggest concern is about medium-sized asteroids, which are about 500 feet across. These are small enough to be difficult to detect, but large enough to cause significant devastation to an area. However, Fast clarified that scientists are relatively confident about very large asteroids because their positions are known. Meanwhile, smaller objects frequently enter Earth's atmosphere and generally don't pose a serious threat.

According to the report, these medium-sized asteroids are being called 'city-killers' because their collision could cause massive regional destruction. According to Kelly Fast, there are about 25,000 such asteroids passing near the Earth, but scientists have accurate information about only 40% of them. The problem is that these objects orbit the Sun like the Earth and do not reflect enough light, making them difficult to detect even with powerful telescopes.

To address this challenge, NASA plans to launch the Near-Earth Object Surveyor space telescope next year. This specialized telescope will be able to detect dark asteroids and comets based on their thermal signatures, which have remained hidden from scientists until now. Fast stressed that the most important thing is to detect asteroids before they reach Earth and develop technology to deflect or destroy them in the future. Currently, humanity does not have adequate safeguards to protect itself from 'city-destroying' asteroids.