After the "small asteroid surprise"...the Earth is not as safe as we thought

Astronomers say that the observation of an asteroid the size of a pickup truck just a few days before it passed Earth, on Thursday, although it did not pose any threat to humans, highlights a shortcoming in the ability to predict what could cause actual damage.

For years, the US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has given priority to detecting asteroids that are much larger and more threatening to the existence of humanity than the small space rock BU 2023; It moved 2,200 miles from Earth's surface, which is closer than some satellites.

Even if the asteroid were to hit Earth, the atmosphere would crush it, and only small fragments would reach the land. But BU 2023 is the smallest of a group of asteroids between five and 50 meters in diameter, and also includes those as large as an Olympic swimming pool.

It is difficult to detect objects of this size before they are much closer to Earth, which complicates any efforts to prepare for what could affect a populated area. And NASA says that the probability that a space rock, called a meteorite, will collide with Earth when it enters the atmosphere, its size in this range is relatively low, and this varies according to the size of the asteroid.

It is estimated that the probability of a five-meter-diameter rock hitting the ground is once a year and a 50-meter-diameter rock is once every thousand years. But with the current capabilities, astronomers can only know when such rocks are heading towards Earth until days in advance.

"We don't know where most of the asteroids that could cause local and regional devastation are," said Terek Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that the nearly 20-meter-diameter meteorite that exploded in 2013 over Chile, "Ebenskoprosia", is something that happens once every 100 years.

The fall of the meteorite caused a shock wave that shattered tens of thousands of windows and caused damages amounting to 33 million dollars, and no one saw it before it entered the Earth's atmosphere.