NASA is planning to capture one. Its Asteroid Redirect Mission may attempt to nab an asteroid in a space probe’s “capture bag” and release the roving rock into lunar orbit. NASA hopes to begin landing astronauts on its captured asteroid by the mid-2020s.
Smaller asteroid impacts may be less catastrophic, but they can still cause significant damage. The space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was only 62 feet (19 m) wide, and it injured more than 1,200 people while damaging thousands of buildings as far as 58 miles (93 kilometers) away from the site of impact. NASA is starting to look for more of those smaller asteroids, now that most of the larger ones have already been cataloged.
Picture Credit : Google