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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 January 31
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                          Asteroids in the Distance
     Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble; R. Evans & K. Stapelfeldt
                                  ([6]JPL)

   Explanation: Rocks from space hit Earth every day. The larger the rock,
   though, the less often Earth is struck. Many kilograms of space dust
   pitter to Earth daily. Larger bits appear initially as a bright
   [7]meteor. Baseball-sized rocks and ice-balls streak through our
   atmosphere daily, most evaporating quickly to nothing. [8]Significant
   threats do exist for rocks near 100 meters in diameter, which [9]strike
   the Earth roughly every 1000 years. An object this size could cause
   [10]significant tsunamis were it to strike an ocean, [11]potentially
   devastating even distant shores. A collision with a [12]massive
   asteroid, over 1 km across, [13]is more rare, occurring typically
   millions of years apart, but [14]could have truly global consequences.
   Many asteroids remain [15]undiscovered. In the [16]featured image, one
   such asteroid -- shown by the long blue streak -- was found by chance
   in 1998 by the Hubble Space Telescope. A [17]collision with a large
   asteroid would not [18]affect Earth's orbit so much as [19]raise dust
   that would [20]affect Earth's climate. One likely result is a global
   extinction of many species of life, possibly dwarfing the ongoing
   [21]extinction occurring now.

                       Tomorrow's picture: bunny-moon
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     __________________________________________________________________

    Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([36]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [37]Specific rights apply.
              [38]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [39]ASD at [40]NASA / [41]GSFC
                           & [42]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/AsteroidStreak_hst_960.jpg
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. https://www.esa.int/
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html
   6. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
   7. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/in-depth/
   8. https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/
   9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_Crater#/media/File:Meteorcrater.jpg
  10. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-020-04086-6
  11. https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/common-misconceptions-about-doomsday-asteroid-impacts
  12. https://www.boredpanda.com/size-of-asteroids-alvaro-gracia-montoya/
  13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event#/media/File:SmallAsteroidImpacts-Frequency-Bolide-20141114.jpg
  14. https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/intro.html
  15. https://spacewatch.lpl.arizona.edu/
  16. https://hubblesite.org/image/616/category/39-asteroids
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050308.html
  18. https://youtu.be/4Wrc4fHSCpw
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95tmYmeHf84
  20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_winter
  21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210130.html
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  31. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210131
  32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210201.html
  33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  39. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  40. https://www.nasa.gov/
  41. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  42. http://www.mtu.edu/