IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v403y2000i6766d10.1038_35003128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A reduced estimate of the number of kilometre-sized near-Earth asteroids

Author

Listed:
  • David Rabinowitz

    (Yale University Physics Department)

  • Eleanor Helin

    (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

  • Kenneth Lawrence

    (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

  • Steven Pravdo

    (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Abstract

Near-Earth asteroids are small (diameters 1 km has been estimated to be in the range 1,000–2,000, which translates to an approximately 1% chance of a catastrophic collision with the Earth in the next millennium1,2. These numbers are, however, poorly constrained because of the limitations of previous searches using photographic plates. (One kilometre is below the size of a body whose impact on the Earth would produce global effects3.) Here we report an analysis of our survey for near-Earth asteroids that uses improved detection technologies. We find that the total number of asteroids with diameters > 1 km is about half the earlier estimates. At the current rate of discovery of near-Earth asteroids, 90% will probably have been detected within the next 20 years.

Suggested Citation

  • David Rabinowitz & Eleanor Helin & Kenneth Lawrence & Steven Pravdo, 2000. "A reduced estimate of the number of kilometre-sized near-Earth asteroids," Nature, Nature, vol. 403(6766), pages 165-166, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6766:d:10.1038_35003128
    DOI: 10.1038/35003128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35003128
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35003128?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6766:d:10.1038_35003128. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.