The earth doesn't go to asteroids. The asteroids go to earth!

Raju Korti
Imagine this: you are peacefully sipping your morning chai, flipping through the news, and boom. NASA pops up with, “Big rock coming close to Earth!” You blink. Another one? Really? It is as if they have an overactive space alarm clock that goes off every few weeks. Is it for real, or are these folks just a bit too excited about space pebbles?

Yes, NASA actually has a team whose full-time job is to keep an eye on space rocks. Meet the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). It is based in California, crunching numbers and tracking rocks that get a bit too friendly with Earth’s orbit.

A grab from NASA website. 

They use hi-tech tools with cool names like Sentry and Scout and work with other global sky-gazers like the European Space Agency and some warning network that probably has a WhatsApp group called “Rocks to Watch Out For.” And they are not just staring at the sky. In 2022, they actually banged a spaceship into an asteroid just to see if they could change its course.

Since 2020, NASA has flagged thousands of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Of those, around 2,480 were put in the “potentially hazardous” category. Sounds scary? None have booked a one-way trip to Earth as yet.

One especially cheeky one deserves a shoutout. 2020 VT4, a rock the size of a small bus that whizzed just 240 miles above the Pacific. That’s closer than some of our satellites! It showed up uninvited, made a quick pass, and left before anyone noticed. NASA spotted it only after it passed, like someone gatecrashing a party and sneaking out with a samosa.

Most of the other rocks have been farther away than your in-laws in Canada. One called Apophis was hyped as the next big doomsday candidate, but turns out it’ll just wave at us from a safe 20,000 miles. The latest one, 2025 JR, is about the size of a 25-storey building and passing at a comfy 2.8 million miles. That’s like standing in Mumbai and worrying about someone sneezing in Moscow.

So, are we overreacting, or just playing I It safe? Well, a little bit of both. NASA might seem like they are sounding the alarm every other day, but better safe than sorry, right? Asteroids don’t send invites -- they just show up. NASA’s alerts might feel a bit dramatic, but the idea is to spot trouble early and avoid surprises.

They use a rating system called the Torino Scale. If it’s 0, you sleep well. If it’s 10, maybe start praying. Most of these asteroids hover around 0 or 1, and even the drama queen 2024 YR4 that had a 3.8% chance of hitting us cooled down to a near-zero risk after more data. And if a rock ever does take aim, odds are it’ll fall into the ocean. With 71% of Earth covered in water, we have got nature’s own cushion ready.

So yes, NASA may sound the “asteroid alert” bell a bit often. But in all fairness, that’s their job so we can sip our chai in peace. They have turned space rock-watching into a full-time job, complete with data, drama, and the occasional plot that might give Akshay Kumar some outrageous sci-fi ideas. The next time you hear “an asteroid is passing,” don’t panic.

After all, the sky isn’t falling. The NASA will make it sure it doesn’t.