Fourth Industrial Revolution

This is how many asteroids fly past earth... And how many could be dangerous

Artist's impression of a collision of two icy asteroid-sized bodies orbiting the bright star.

NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies tracks objects in space. Image: VIA REUTERS

Katharina Buchholz
Data Journalist, Statista
  • There are 26,115 asteroids that pass near Earth according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
  • There are over 2,000 potentially dangerous Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).
  • 158 have a diameter of more than one kilometer, making them two and half times taller than the Empire State Building.
  • As technology has advanced, we've been able to track more.
  • Only a few celestial objects had been detected by 1900 and by 1990 only 134 NEAs and 42 potentially dangerous objects were detected up above.
  • As of June 2021, 26,115 NEAs and 2,185 potentially dangerous asteroids have been identified.

NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies keeps an eye on the sky, surveying more than 26,000 asteroids and a much smaller number of comets that pass near Earth. Near Earth Asteroids, or NEAs, also include more than 2,000 potentially dangerous specimen, of which 158 have a diameter of more than one kilometer, making them 2.5 times as tall as the Empire State Building.

Anyone who has dabbled in paleontology - even in the science fiction realm of Jurassic Park or The Land Before Time - knows that a giant asteroid hitting Earth is not good news for life on the planet. In fact, there is evidence that this may have been one of the main causes of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.

Have you read?
    a chart showing the number of asteroids surrounding earth
    There are 26,115 asteroids that pass near Earth according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies. Image: Statista

    But it does not take a massive asteroid to cause widespread damage. An asteroid that was only ten meters in diameter exploded 25 km above the Bering Sea in December 2019 with the force equivalent to ten Hiroshima atomic bombs. No international or national space organization had detected the small celestial object before it disintegrated above the unsuspecting Earth.

    Discover

    What is the Young Scientists Community?

    As technology has advanced throughout the decades, people have become better at seeing what is floating around us in the sky. According to Nasa's CNEOS Center, only a handful of celestial objects had been detected by 1900. The scale of that number did not change much until the end of the century. As of 1990, only 134 Near Earth Asteroids and 42 potentially dangerous objects were detected up above. By comparison, 26,115 NEAs and 2,185 potentially dangerous asteroids had been identified as June 2021.

    Loading...
    Don't miss any update on this topic

    Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

    Sign up for free

    License and Republishing

    World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

    The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

    Stay up to date:

    Space

    Share:
    The Big Picture
    Explore and monitor how Space is affecting economies, industries and global issues
    A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
    Crowdsource Innovation
    Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
    World Economic Forum logo
    Global Agenda

    The Agenda Weekly

    A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

    Subscribe today

    You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

    Closing the AI equity gap: Trust and safety for sustainable development

    Keyzom Ngodup Massally and Jennifer Louie

    December 3, 2024

    1:55

    How countries and platforms are making the internet safer for children

    About us

    Engage with us

    • Sign in
    • Partner with us
    • Become a member
    • Sign up for our press releases
    • Subscribe to our newsletters
    • Contact us

    Quick links

    Language editions

    Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

    Sitemap

    © 2024 World Economic Forum