Near Earth Objects (NEOs)


Barringer Crater

The Barringer Impact Crater, Arizona

Credit: D. Roddy and NASA/LPI

NEOs are asteroids or comets that have orbits that come near to the Earth.

Unlike most meteorites, NEOs can be quite big and would do a lot of damage if they were to strike the Earth. The crater to the left was created by a meteor that was just 40 metres across.

It is possible that a large NEO may actually hit the Earth at some time in the future. Although this is very unlikely to happen in our lifetime, astronomers are trying very hard to find as many NEOs as possible and study their orbits to see if they might hit us.

The Wolfe Creek Impact Crater

The Wolfe Creek Impact Crater, Australia

Credit: SpaceGuard(UK)

To learn more about the chances of a large NEO impacting Earth, click here.

If they can find big Earth-colliding NEOs early enough, it should be possible to "push" them out of the way and stop them crashing onto us!

What would be the results of a large NEO impact?

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