NASA?s asteroid collision: how many asteroids are really out there?
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2022
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week NASA slammed a spacecraft into an asteroid in the hope of diverting its course. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART mission will help scientists understand how easy it would be protect Earth if one was headed in our direction. More Or Less first discussed this in 2016 with a little help from the movie Armageddon ? with listeners getting in touch once again we ask how many asteroids are really out there and how dangerous they might be to Earth. Presenters: Charlotte McDonald and Simon Maybin Producer: Charlotte McDonald Editor: Richard Vadon Production Coordinator: Jacqui Johnson Sound Engineer: James Beard
(Image: 3D rendering of a swarm of Meteorites or asteroids entering the Earth atmosphere: ratpack223/ Getty)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC. |
| 0:08.7 | It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, |
| 0:13.5 | moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous. |
| 0:19.1 | And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music, |
| 0:21.8 | means we can tell those stories like no one else. |
| 0:24.5 | We were, are and always will be right there at the centre of the narrative. |
| 0:28.5 | So whether you want an insightful take on music right now |
| 0:31.3 | or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music, |
| 0:35.7 | check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.3 | Welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service with me, Simon Mabin. And me, Charlotte |
| 0:46.5 | McDonald. This week we're talking asteroids because of NASA's exciting dart mission. You |
| 0:52.2 | might have heard about it. The idea was to try and knock an asteroid |
| 0:56.0 | off its path by flying an uncrewed spacecraft directly into it. So if there was a space rock |
| 1:02.9 | heading towards Earth, we might be able to do the same thing. Good news. They scored a direct hit, |
| 1:09.7 | but we won't know for a few weeks how much they changed the asteroid's trajectory. |
| 1:14.2 | Trying to stop an asteroid hitting the Earth sounds like the plot from a film. |
| 1:18.2 | Because of course, it is the plot to quite a few films. |
| 1:21.9 | But for the more or less team, there's only one asteroid film, Armageddon. |
| 1:26.6 | A film we love so much, we made a program about it in 2016. |
| 1:31.1 | So today we're going to answer listener questions about the latest asteroid mission. |
| 1:36.1 | But first, let's go back into the archive to answer the key question. |
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