Near Earth Objects (NEOs) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) - Research Paper ExampleDepending on how close they atomic number 18 to the Earth, they potbelly be spotted with the naked eye, or they can be spotted with a telescope. Rather than clustered together, a comet is a single large determination with a long tail. More often than not, it is the tail, and not the main part of the comet that can be seen. Near Earth Objects might be fun to sapidity at, but they are capable of doing catastrophic damage. Craters around the world pay homage to the respect that they undoubtedly deserve. One of the most widely accepted theories for the experimental extinction of dinosaurs is that a great meteor potty the planet and radically changed both modality and atmosphere. Fortunately, when it comes to this modern age, there are methods and theories in which to deflect NEOs. All of these are untested, however, and have only performed in labs. A meteor, or meteorite, is a body of rock, ice, or metal that enters the Earths atm osphere. Many of these are small and harmless, and arouse up upon entering the atmosphere. When you see a shooting star, or a meteor shower, that is what you are seeing. While no threatening meteors have recently struck the Earths surface, the evidence is all around us. The largest crater in the world, created by a meteor, is in South Africa in an area called the Vredforte Dome. This meteor make water the Earth more than 2 billion years ago, and was around 10 km in diameter. According to science, the impact of the meteor might have been massive enough to jumpstart multicellular life by increasing the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. There are, to date, 841 humankind Heritage sites around the world. A World Heritage site is a special place that has either a cultural or a physical significance. These sites are chosen by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and heathenish Organization), which has been around since 1945. While Earth appears safe for the most part, it has had its share of close calls. One such close call occurred in September of 2004. An asteroid by the name of Toutatis swept by Earth, missing it by about a mile. Several kilometers in diameter, if Toutatis or a rock like it were to hit Earth, it would liquidate life as humans know it. The sun would be obscured by a huge cloud of dust that would travel around the globe, changing the temperature and climate of the Earth. Plants would start to die from lack of sunlight, unable to complete their cycles of photosynthesis, and herbivores would begin to starve. Humans would have major crop failure as well, and would need to resort to some other means of sustenance. Eventually, over time, civilization would cease to be. Food, if any survived at all, would be both precious and hard to come by. Water would become stagnant and virulent to drink, as the evaporation process would be altered without sunlight. The impact of a NEO of this size would ultimately either destroy all life on th e planet, or force evolution into overdrive. A rare NEO that is usually only seen by astronomers with high-powered telescopes and other special equipment is the comet. These massive objects are do up of ice and organic material. They carry behind them a long tail, which consists of ice and other materials that it picks up as it hurtles through space. The head of the comet is called a nucleus, which consists of the ice and organic materials. The core of the nucleus is as yet unknown. These beautiful objects are far older than many of the planets in the solar system, the majority of them estimated to be