(RT) A new map released by NASA has plotted the journeys of the majority of Earth’s most potentially dangerous asteroids through space, creating a swirling spirograph of over 1,400 gigantic asteroids that pass close to the planet’s orbit. The “potentially hazardous asteroids” (PHA) depicted on the map measure at least 140 meters in length – larger than the size of an American football pitch. The asteroid’s orbits are shown as blue ellipses crowding closely around the sun. The image was produced by NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) program, which is responsible for recording PHAs.
“These are the asteroids considered hazardous because they are fairly large (at least 460 feet or 140 meters in size), and because they follow orbits that pass close to the Earth's orbit (within 4.7 million miles or 7.5 million kilometers),” NASA officials explained as they posted the picture to the agency’s online Planetary Photojournal.
The map also marks out the orbits of Earth, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars, in order to put their size and distance in perspective.
None of the asteroids pose a direct threat to Earth within the next 100 years, according to the agency. NASA stated that classification as a PHA does not mean that an asteroid will impact the Earth. Despite the lack of immediate concern, tracking the asteroids provides NASA with the ability to predict their future movements.
“By continuing to observe and track these asteroids, their orbits can be refined and more precise predictions made of their future close approaches and impact probabilities,” the agency stated.
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