The risk of meteorite crashing into the earth is greater than expected

A study published in Nature confirms the risk of meteorites crashing into the earth as a meteorite explosion in Russia was much larger than previous forecasts.

The meteorite exploded in the sky, the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on February 15, about 19 meters wide, exploding in the air with the destructive power of 500,000 tons of TNT, injuring 1,000 people.

Meteorite exploded in the sky of Chelyabinsk, Russia in February - (Photo: Space.com)

According to the BBC, the expert group, led by Professor Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (Canada), studied data collected by US government sensors over the past 20 years and found that during this time there were 60 meteorites 20m wide crashed into the earth.

Most are not detected because they explode above the oceans or deserted areas. The analysis showed that the number of meteorites this size falls to the earth is 10 times higher than the previous calculations.

'People used to think that a case like Chelyabinsk only happened once every 150 years. But the data shows that once every 30 years it happens once again, ' said Professor Brown.

The meteorite explosion in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 made thousands of square kilometers of forest flattened. Professor Brown estimates that such a large case takes place every few hundred years, not several thousand years as previous assessments.

The expert team called on the international community to strengthen efforts to build meteorological early warning systems.'There are millions of meteorites larger than 10m flying near the earth and can crash into the earth. So far we have only discovered more than 1,000 meteorites of this type. There must be systems to detect them several weeks before they hit the ground, " Professor Brown stressed.