Looking up at the night sky, it seems peaceful enough.
That's something of an illusion. Not long ago a Russian city had a violent near miss from an asteroid....
A one off perhaps?
Nope. See for yourself - google 'Tunguska event', or 'Clovis culture disappearance'.
Below is a three minute animation (courtesy of Scott Manly) of all the asteroids discovered from 1980 to 2010:
Green asteroids are known to be totally safe, yellow ones are Earth-approachers but have no chance of hitting us, and red ones are those that cross Earths' path - possibly an impact risk.
But the big little space rocks aren't all bad news;
Asteroids are hot property in space exploration right now. Some space rocks have been found to contain chemicals related to life, and show signs they were once part of worlds with liquid water beneath the surface.
And now NASA has a plan to kidnap one......
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