Could an undetectable mini-asteroid be the end of the world as we know it?

AN ASTEROID too small to be picked up by telescopes could wipe out a city, killing up to a million people, a leading scientist has warned.
Objects less than 460ft across are not currently detected, but research suggests they pack a far mightier punch than previously feared.

A computer simulation carried out in the United States shows asteroids as small as 100ft wide could cause "airbursts" similar to one that flattened 1,250 square miles of Siberian forest almost a century ago.

Dr Mark Boslough, in a report published in New Scientist, said: "It is becoming clear previous models are not right. If one of these events hit an area of high population density, it could kill a million people."

I’ve always wondered about the possibility of another “Tunguska event” occurring – and the effect of such an event over a city. Imagine the possibility of something like this happening over, for example, San Francisco or Paris or Tokyo. There would be mass devastation. Similarly, a modern blast of this sort in Russia or China might trigger a nuclear response before there was even time to investigate what happened.

Posted by: Greg at 01:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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