These days, amateur asteroid seekers are still very active. But not in the way that it was in the past.
When you hear the term "amateur asteroid hunter," you're referring to people who aren't affiliated with NASA or other major space agencies who are looking for space objects that may collide with Earth.
Bob Stephens, a keen amateur asteroid hunter, revealed his most recent exploits.
Observing a possible moonlet, tracking an asteroid with an unusual tumbling path, and co-authoring certain Jupiter asteroid publications are among them.
With all of these asteroid-related activities, Stephens underlined that tracking space rocks is only a pastime for him.
"I got mixed up with a terrible crowd and became friends with a number of professional astronomers," he told Mashable.
The Importance of Amateur Asteroid Hunters in Planetary Defense
When amateur asteroid hunters were at their peak, they would always engage in time-consuming meteor tracking exercises. The majority of the rocks they analyse were produced roughly 4.6 billion years ago in the solar system.
However, since NASA and other space organisations decided to concentrate their efforts on asteroid tracking, amateur meteor trackers have become scarce.
Despite this, their work continues to benefit large space firms. As of press time, the majority of them have confirmed asteroids discovered by NASA and other space experts.
Some of them also respond to challenging queries about asteroids, such as rotations, appearances, and so on.
Status of Planetary Defense
Despite the fact that no destructive asteroid strikes have been reported, NASA and other space businesses are still working to avoid a huge asteroid from colliding with Earth.
NASA's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which tries to redirect an asteroid's trajectory, is one of the efforts focusing on preventing meteor collisions.
How likely is this natural disaster to occur if they are taking asteroid impact seriously? According to Space.Com, Earth has already been hit by several meteors.
NASA DART's Kinetic Impactor is set to launch in 2021.
The NASA "Eyes on Asteroid" internet tool, on the other hand, was also revealed.
However, the most of them aren't that serious. Every year, asteroids the size of a small car penetrate the Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA.
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