12-10-2017, 07:33 PM
Old croc - I'm assuming there's a little sarcasm there!
For those interested, the asteroid old croc refers to is too small to have impacted the surface of the Earth. The link he provided is fairly accurate when it comes to the amount of energy would be released, but that would have happened high up in the atmosphere. At worst, if it had hit our planet, it would have been similar to the Chelyabinsk meteor (and that's on the tiny chance it would have exploded over an inhabited area):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
Due to funding issues, astronomers concentrate on finding asteroids that would actually impact the Earth's surface. If a bit more money was available, then smaller asteroids would also be detected, but right now the effort is spent on detecting and understanding asteroids that have a much larger potential for affecting life on Earth because they will actually impact the surface.
For those interested, the asteroid old croc refers to is too small to have impacted the surface of the Earth. The link he provided is fairly accurate when it comes to the amount of energy would be released, but that would have happened high up in the atmosphere. At worst, if it had hit our planet, it would have been similar to the Chelyabinsk meteor (and that's on the tiny chance it would have exploded over an inhabited area):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor
Due to funding issues, astronomers concentrate on finding asteroids that would actually impact the Earth's surface. If a bit more money was available, then smaller asteroids would also be detected, but right now the effort is spent on detecting and understanding asteroids that have a much larger potential for affecting life on Earth because they will actually impact the surface.