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NASA defines Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) as "comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets
into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood."
Asteroids
Right now NASA is tracking 1,050 potentially hazardous asteroids heading our way.The most dangerous of these is going to arrive on our doorstep in 2029.
****** April 13, 2029 ******
On April 13, 2029, an asteroid almost 1,000 feet (320 meters) in diameter will come within 18,600 miles of Earth.
This is very close, well within the orbit of the Moon,
and even inside the orbits of many communications and science satellites!
The NASA diagram below shows the predicted path of the asteroid,
and if it stays on that path, it will miss both Earth and the Moon - but not by much!.
In the close up image below you can see just how close this asteroid (named 2004 MN4) will come to our planet.
Although predictions call for a near miss, a lot can happen in the intervening 20 years,
and if an asteroid this size struck us, it would be nothing less than a world wide catastrophe.
Right now we have no viable plans for dealing with such an object on a collision course with Earth.
Should the path of this asteroid deviate in the slightest - which could happen for any number of reasons -
we have 20 years to come up with a plan to deal with it, and the clock is ticking!
Comets
There are at present no comets predicted to come close enough to Earth to be considered hazardous.(Although this could change at a moment's notice)
To find all the details, including finders charts, for all the comets currently heading our way,
go to Bright Comets, and Skyhound.
For more information on all of this, go to NASA's Near Earth Object Program.
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