NASA Discovers Ten Thousandth Near-Earth Object in Space

NASA has officially spotted the ten thousandth near-Earth object. The asteroid, named 2013 MZ5, zoomed into our line of sight on June 18. The new finding highlights just how important it is to detect these objects before they fly too close to our planet.

Near-Earth objects, otherwise known as NEOs, are asteroids and comets that can approach Earth's orbital distance to within about 28 million miles. As small as a few feet or as large as 25 miles, these objects can make a major impact if they actually crash land on Earth. That means that detecting these NEOs ahead of time is crucial in order to defend our planet against potential catastrophes associated with impacts.

"Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's NEOO Program, in a news release. "But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured that we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth."

Of the 10,000 discoveries, only about 10 percent of them are larger than six-tenths of a mile. This particular size could produce global consequences if one slammed into Earth. Fortunately, it turns out that none of these massive NEOs currently pose an impact threat to our planet, and it's likely that only a few dozen more of these particular NEOs remain undiscovered.

The other NEOs are far smaller--only about half a mile across or less. There are about 15,000 NEOs that are probably about one-and-half football fields in size and more than a million that are about one-third a football field in size. In order for a NEO to cause any real consequences, it would need to be about 100 feet or larger to cause significant damage.

As the hunt for these NEOs has continued, researchers have found more and more of them during a more rapid timeframe. NASA has actually discovered about 98 percent of all NEOs and they continue to find more every day.

"When I began surveying for asteroids and comets in 1992, a near-Earth object discovery was a rare event," said Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center, in a news release. "These days we average three NEO discoveries a day, and each month the Minor Planet Center receives hundreds of thousands of observations on asteroids, including those in the main-belt."

Currently, scientists are continuing to hunt for NEOs in order to act as an early warning system in case one heads toward Earth. They're well on their way to finding all of them, though, and their discoveries could lead to better protection for our planet.