However, the revised outcome is debatable.
According to a report, a recent asteroid impact research is stirring up
debate among experts.
According to satellite data, a NASA-funded research that was given at the
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last week contends that large
asteroids strike Earth more frequently than previously believed. However,
the
journal Science reports that not everyone concurs with the analysis and that
additional research is required to corroborate the data.
James Garvin, the head scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Maryland, oversaw the study(opens in new tab), which examined three impact
scars using high-resolution data from a number of Earth-observing
spacecraft. Large rings, according to Garvin's team, can be seen in the
images and indicate that the craters are tens of miles broader than
originally thought. This size modification, in turn, suggests that the
collisions were much stronger than originally recorded.
According to Science, Garvin said during the presentation in The Woodlands,
Texas, "It would be in the realm of significant crap occurring."
Since many inbound space objects burn up in the Earth's atmosphere and
because wind and water erode the scars left by asteroids that do make it to
the ground, calculating the impact rates of asteroids is a challenging
scientific task. However, scientists can state with certainty that no large
asteroids pose a danger to Earth for the immediate future. It is difficult
to determine how frequently the moon or Mars is bombarded because the rate
may change over time.
According to Science, scientists generally predict that an asteroid at
least 0.62 miles (1 km) broad will strike Earth every 600,000 or 700,000
years. The new research significantly accelerates the rate by positing that
four objects of that magnitude collided with Earth in the last million
years.
However, Science heard from discussions with other academics at the meeting
that they were advocating a more critical evaluation of the findings before
completely revising all of our predictions for space rock encounters.
According to Anna Osiak, a crater researcher at the Polish Institute of
Sciences, the rings noted in the recent study might not actually be crater
characteristics after all. If they are, she continued, "there are a lot of
space debris that may come and create a mess," so the consequences are
worrying.
The scientific team leader for Canada's upcoming lunar rover, planetary
scientist Gordon Osinski of Western University, also stated that he was
unable to definitively spot rims in the study's data. He said, "I don't
believe they say 'big structural rim,' because those characteristics are so
delicate.
The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation mounted on the International
Space Station and the ICESat-2 spacecraft, both of which use lidar
altimetry, as well as commercial stereo imagery made accessible by private
firms Planet and Maxar, served as the foundation for Garvin's team's
research. The newer data, according to the scientists, is a "major advance
over current terrain" used for impact estimates, such as NASADEM and
Germany's TanDEM-X SAR, which offer resolutions of 40 feet (12 m) and 13
feet (4 meters), respectively.
Without research, Garvin stated to Science that "we haven't demonstrated
anything," a statement that was repeated by Bill Bottke, a planetary
dynamicist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "I'm
dubious. Before I believe it, I need to see much more "said Bottke.
