On February 15, 2013, news of a meteor streaking through the Russian sky and slamming into the Earth, injuring almost 1,000 people, broke worldwide. The sight of the meteor captivated people across the globe but this event was a far cry from the potential impact of an asteroid hitting the planet.
Have you ever heard of the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact? Both of these 1998 films focus on asteroids on a collision course with Earth and the actions of people to try to save our planet from the devastating results.
Have you ever heard of the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact? Both of these 1998 films focus on asteroids on a collision course with Earth and the actions of people to try to save our planet from the devastating results.
While we don't know of any asteroids headed for Earth that could harm us, there are plenty of huge asteroids, called Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), that have or soon will pass not too far away from the planet. PHAs are space rocks of a certain size (larger than 100 m or about 325 ft) that might pass within 100 million miles of Earth. (While that may sound like a pretty far distance from us, the Moon is about 250,000 miles from Earth.)
On January 7, 2013 there were 1,364 known PHAs and astronomers are constantly finding new ones.
For this year's Zero Robotics competition, you must save the Earth by diverting a comet from its course:
On January 7, 2013 there were 1,364 known PHAs and astronomers are constantly finding new ones.
For this year's Zero Robotics competition, you must save the Earth by diverting a comet from its course:
Read more about the details of this year's competition here:
You can view the detailed game manual here.
Now, let's get started!
Access the Zero Robotics website here.
