Size of Asteroids vs New York City

3D animator Alvaro Gracia Montoya of MetaBallStudios (previously) created a fascinating, if not terrifying, animation that visually compares the size of exceptional asteroids in our solar system to the tall buildings and soaring skyscrapers of New York City. If any of these hit the Earth it would be devastating.

16 thoughts on “Size of Asteroids vs New York City

  1. p/s says:

    On Friday, a large asteroid roughly the size of the Eiffel Tower zipped past the Earth. The asteroid posed no hazard to the Earth on this flyby as it was more than 40 times as far away from Earth as the moon. However, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will get closer to the Earth than some of the highest-orbit satellites surrounding the planet. https://www.slashgear.com/a-large-asteroid-known-as-apophis-zipped-silently-past-the-earth-06662496/
    Scientists at the University of Hawaii detected a small Yarkovsky acceleration on the surface of the asteroid Apophis which could influence the asteroid’s path for its 2068 flyby.
    The Yarkovsky effect is when an asteroid or celestial body changes its orbit due to small push of heat, either from itself expelling gasses, or the gravitational push and shove from celestial bodies including the Sun and Earth.
    In this instance, the scientists discovered a small thermal reaction which could slightly alter Apophis’s course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarkovsky_effect

  2. Cassandra says:

    During the week of April 26, members of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) will participate in a “tabletop exercise” to simulate an asteroid impact scenario. The exercise depicting this fictional event is being led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), allowing NASA’s PDCO and other U.S. agencies and space science institutions, along with international space agencies and partners, to use the fictitious scenario to investigate how near-Earth object (NEO) observers, space agency officials, emergency managers, decision makers, and citizens might respond and work together to an actual impact prediction and simulate the evolving information that becomes available in the event an asteroid impact threat is discovered. https://scitechdaily.com/planetary-defense-conference-nasa-to-participate-in-exercise-simulating-asteroid-impact/
    The fictitious impact scenario will occur during the 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference, hosted by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in cooperation with the European Space Agency https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/pd/cs/pdc21/
    These type of exercises are specifically identified as part of the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan developed over a three-year period and published by the White House in June 2018. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/federal-government-releases-national-near-earth-object-preparedness-plan

  3. Howardite says:

    An international team of researchers searched for pieces of a small asteroid tracked in space and then observed to impact Botswana on June 2, 2018. Guided by SETI Institute meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, they found 23 meteorites deep inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and now have published their findings online in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/si-ath042221.php
    The impact and recovery of asteroid 2018 LA https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.13653

  4. Hadean says:

    Early Earth was bombarded by series of city-sized asteroids https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/gc-eew070621.php
    “Earth’s early years were unimaginably violent in comparison to today. Scientists believe that Earth was struck by a significant number of large asteroids (greater than 10 km in diameter), and this would have had significant effect on the Earth’s near-surface chemistry and ability to support life.”

  5. Knock, knock... says:

    A potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu has a 1 in 1,750 chance of hitting Earth between now and the year 2300.
    That’s according to the most precise calculations of an asteroid’s trajectory ever made, and the odds are slightly worse than NASA previously thought. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/11/1026681421/got-plans-for-sept-24-2182-this-big-asteroid-might-too
    NASA Spacecraft Provides Insight into Asteroid Bennu’s Future Orbit https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacecraft-provides-insight-into-asteroid-bennu-s-future-orbit

  6. Michaelmas says:

    An asteroid around half the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza skimmed by Earth and scientists didn’t see it coming : Dubbed 2021 SG, the asteroid flew close to the planet on September 16, but because it came from the direction of the Sun, scientists didn’t see it coming. https://www.jpost.com/science/747-sized-asteroid-skimmed-by-earth-and-scientists-didnt-see-it-coming-680052
    On Wednesday (Sept. 22), the fall equinox will bring the Earth about 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of night and a renegade space rock measuring about three times the size of the Statue of Liberty.
    This asteroid, named 2021 NY1, will sail harmlessly past our planet, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but is still considered a Near-Earth Object (NEO) because it will pass within about 120 million miles (193 million kilometers) of the sun. https://www.livescience.com/fall-equinox-asteroid-flyby

  7. Tom Corbett says:

    According to NASA the asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1), which measures more than 3,280 feet across, could come within five lunar distances of Earth on January 18.
    NASA has classified this asteroid as “potentially hazardous” for its “potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth”. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/giant-asteroid-earth-january-2022/
    There are more than a million known asteroids, and it is not uncommon for many to fly by Earth, with the overwhelming majority that do being of little concern. On Wednesday and Thursday this week, for example, there are at least five asteroids zooming by the planet, including one the size of a bus and three the size of a house, according to NASA.
    However, there are about 25,000 near-Earth asteroids at least 500 feet wide that could be “devastating” if they crash into Earth, according to Nancy Chabot, chief planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
    See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(7482)_1994_PC1 includes link to a history of close approaches of large near-Earth objects since 1908 

  8. Fellow Traveler says:

    Earth has officially been joined in its orbit around the Sun by a new trojan asteroid.
    Named 2020 XL5, this chunk of rock is only the second object of its type ever to have been conclusively identified. Its discovery suggests that perhaps Earth trojans may be more common than we knew, and offers new insights into these mysterious rocks.
    Earth’s other trojan, named 2010 TK7, is a chunk of rock around 300 meters (984 feet) across, hanging about the Earth-leading L4 Lagrangian in an oscillating tadpole-shaped orbit known as libration.
    Trojan asteroids are asteroids (also known as minor planets) that share the orbital path of larger planetary bodies in the Solar System. They can be found in two gravitationally stable regions leading and trailing the planet, known as Lagrange points. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_planet

  9. 4therecord says:

    The 12 mile diameter Mistastin crater in in northwestern Labrador, Canada, was created 36 million years ago by a violent asteroid impact. The presence of cubic zirconia around the crater rim suggests that the impact generated temperatures in excess of 2,370 °C (4,300 °F) — roughly 43% that of the surface of the Sun and the highest crustal temperatures known on Earth  — and produced global changes that lasted for decades after the impact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistastin_crater
    See also the West Hawk Lake impact crater lake in southeastern Manitoba, Canada.

  10. Hans Zarkov says:

    “Asteroid 2023 BU: Space rock to pass closer than some satellites” (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64411469
    “…there are still asteroids of significant size lurking near Earth that remain to be detected.
    This one was only picked up last weekend by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov, who operates from Nauchnyi in Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
    Article includes NASA / John Hopkins University chart: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/E48A/production/_126860585_risks_of_near_earth_objects_2x640-nc.png.webp

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