We're safer from asteroids than previously thought.
NASA's NEOWISE Asteroid Survey mapped the night sky and found less medium-size asteroids near to our planet that previously thought.
Scientists previously estimated that there were 35,000 asteroids in orbit near Earth and now they've reduced that number to 19,500 such objects.
That's good news since asteroids measuring around 500 feet wide can cause damage around their area of impact and asteroids larger than that can cause global devastation.
Research by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) will continue to map the asteroid population close to home and further out into space because there are still tens of thousands out there to be found. Continued research would mean a better warning system in the case of an impending impact.
"NEOWISE allowed us to take a look at a more representative slice of the near-Earth asteroid numbers and make better estimates about the whole population," said Amy Mainzer, lead author of the new study and principal investigator for the NEOWISE project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's like a population census, where you poll a small group of people to draw conclusions about the entire country." (Taken from NASA's announcement on their website here.)
Click here to read more from Denise Chow from Space.com.
It would take an asteroid the size of a mountain to wreak havoc on Earth ... does this current asteroid survey make you feel more secure? Post your thoughts below or on our Facebook page here!
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKTVO