June 30 is Asteroid Day. Astronomer Mario De Leo Winkler, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside, is available to speak to reporters about asteroids, their impact, just how dangerous to Earth they might be, and what can be done to avoid a collision with one.

He can be reached at (951) 827-5415 and [email protected]u.

De Leo Winkler has released this statement, which reporters are free to use in their stories:

“Asteroids are assigned an impact hazard value from 0 to 10, called the Torino Scale. Zero to three represents no danger, ten means imminent impact with global repercussions. Today, not a single potentially hazardous object has a value more than 3. Yet, we think that we have not discovered 30 percent of these objects, and astronomers need to turn their telescopes to find and track them. Asteroids can change orbits with ease due to their relative low masses and the gravitational pull of planets, so constant monitoring is of essential importance and the sheer number to be tracked represents a challenge. Also, we often miss the smaller asteroids, which exist in much higher quantities but are below the limit of detection of existing instruments.

“If we do find a hazardous asteroid on its way to us, what should we do? Several space agencies and research institutions have been studying the possibilities. Should we blow it up and risk creating a single problem into multiple, unpredictable, smaller-sized impact bodies? Do we have the propulsion technology to stick engines on their side and push them? If we could change their route, have we spotted them with enough time to spare to actually push them a side? Can we put a very massive spacecraft next to it, so that the gravitational pull of the machinery slowly attracts the asteroid, allowing it to change course and miss us? Must we paint some sections of asteroids white, so that photons (light particles) from the Sun slowly push it into another orbit? Some options seem far-fetched, but they have all been under discussion by bright minds.

“We are bound to have another impact; it is just a question of time. Fortunately, our atmosphere disintegrates most asteroids, which are fairly small; but larger rocks that would create local destruction would survive the atmospheric entry. They strike, on average, every 2000 to 3000 years. Asteroids like the one that killed off the dinosaurs collide with Earth once every dozens of million years; the last one happening 65 million years ago.”

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