Although massive asteroid impacts on Earth are rare, astronomers have identified thousands of asteroids close enough to Earth to be potentially hazardous. Learn from meteorite specialist Denton Ebel, Curator in the Divisison of Physical Sciences, how scientists have proposed to deflect an asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth.
When an asteroid breaks apart and a part of it falls to earth, the fallen rock is called a meteorite. Museum visitors can see the Willamette Meteorite, which weighs 15.5 tons, in the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe.