March 23 – Near Miss Day

Happy Near Miss Day!

What’s that you ask?  Well, apparently we had a near miss with a large asteroid on this date in 1989.  Near, meaning about 500,000 miles… in space distance that’s pretty darn close!

According to Space.com asteroids are small, airless rocks revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets.  The mass of all the asteroids revolving around the sun are less than the Earth’s moon.  However, they can still be very dangerous.  Most asteroids can be found in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.    Three other groups of asteroids, called Atens, Amors, and Apollos, are known as near-Earth asteroids.  They orbit in the inner solar system and sometimes cross the path of Mars and Earth.  Asteroids are leftover rocks from the formation of our solar system over four and a half billion years ago.  The video below explains how these asteroids can and have impacted the earth.

http://www.space.com/9911-asteroids-aplenty-space-rocks-types-places.html

I am fortunate enough to know a wonderful non-fiction author through association with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Mary Kay Carson.  Mary Kay researches topics children are interested in and writes in language they can understand.  Of her over 30 published books, Mary Kay has several books about space which are very popular and can be found in almost any library or bookstore.  Look for some of these titles for more information.