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Asteroid Impacts Bigger Risk Than Thought

Posted by Unknown on from the just-build-space-lasers dept.

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "The B612 Foundation, a U.S.-based nuclear test monitoring group, has disclosed that their acoustic sensors show asteroid impacts to be much more common than previously thought. Between 2000 and 2013 their infrasound system detected 26 major explosions due to asteroid strikes. The impacts were gauged at energies of 1 to 600 kilotons, compared to 45 kilotons for 1945 Hiroshima bomb."

3 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Am I reading this right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Between 2000 and 2013 their infrasound system detected 26 major explosions due to asteroid strikes. The impacts were gauged at energies of 1 to 600 kilotons, compared to 45 kilotons for 1945 Hiroshima bomb.

    Is the Earth basically getting nuked (in terms of explosive yield) about twice per year without anybody noticing?

  2. Re:Severe error in summary by rossdee · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe some of those events were earthquakes. I find it hard to believe that their were 26 major impacts that we didn't know about. 600KT is hard to miss even if it is in a remote area.

  3. Re:1-600 kilotons by darkshot117 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not sure why that data cuts off at ">20 kilotons", which seems to hide the fact that Chelyabinsk was measured to be 400-500 kilotons. >20 seems to be a bit of an understatement here.