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Can we predict meteor strikes?

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  • Description

    Russian space rock surprises scientists

  • Duration 2:33
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Ton meteor crashing through central Russia last week.

As onlookers watched in -- terrible car.

This space -- explosion triggered.

Chaos in the streets and more than a thousand people were injured including 200 children and a couple days -- reports of a possible sighting.

In California.

Luckily no impact or damage there so luckily new.

-- -- -- is headed for planet earth here listening to.

Research scientist near earth object program for NASA Paltrow artists who joins us from Los Angeles -- Mauritania.

Good morning you know they said last week last Friday a -- we didn't see that -- common.

Is is there's somebody who is supposed to be looking out there say -- okay I see what it's gonna hit us on Tuesday.

NASA has a program to search for these objects and we've done a good job of finding the large ones so that we put the priority on finding a large -- first.

The one that hit on Friday.

Was really a tiny asteroid pretty small -- How did it then it's in this tiny one and it caused this much damage he say that mostly which are looking out for the ones that are 400 feet in size and up right.

Yes a city block and larger those are ones that would reach the surface the one that hit over Russia was broken up an atmosphere.

So there was only the damage from the shock wave.

The larger ones if they reach the surface in one piece can -- caused great damage.

When you tell -- the larger ones when we talking about something as big as that kilometer.

I did those exist -- Oh yes oh yes and that's a -- a half a mile.

-- done a good job of finding 95% of those ones.

The idea is to find the many many years before they could hit the earth and then to calculate when and where the hazard is and if there is -- hazard sometime in the future.

Then we could possibly do something about it OK note you just touch on the part we all want to know about.

Do something about it tell -- that NASA dot org or the US government does have a rocket somewhere.

Pulling it up they -- they can shoot one of these things out of the sky.

What -- -- the plan would be to.

It if we went ahead with this would be to build a spacecraft have to go up in the space and knock the thing off course just slightly.

Many years before -- there was near the earth will.

-- just in case scenario Paltrow does research scientist near earth object program and NASA it -- LA Paul thank you very much.

Thank you --

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