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This video of asteroids that are casually floating around our solar system is absolutely terrifying

This video of asteroids that are casually floating around our solar system is absolutely terrifying

It’s hard to truly imagine the scale of something unless you compare it relatively… and that’s exactly what someone’s done with asteroids in our solar system.

Comparing the large floating rocks in our solar system to the size of New York City, MetaBallStudios posted the 3D comparative animation to YouTube earlier this month.

It starts out with asteroid 2008 TC3, which is around 4.1 meters in diameter.

Things take a dramatic turn when asteroid 99942 Apophis steps onto the scene with an average diameter of 370 meters.

It then goes all the way up to 1 Ceres (which is 939km in diameter) and takes up a large chunk of the US.

Mind. Blown.

Twitter user @ItsTheMind (All Around Science) posted the animation to Twitter and people were absolutely amazed but also a little scared.

It’s worth noting these are just the asteroids in our own solar system and an asteroid is different from a meteoroid… not to mention meteors and bolides.

Asteroids are large rocky bodies in space that orbit around the sun, while meteoroids are much smaller rocks or particles.

Meteoroids become meteors if they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, then become meteorites if they actually end up landing on the Earth’s surface.

But don't worry, there are several international observing programmes using automated telescopes specifically designed to map any potential objects on a collision course with Earth.

(Practically all of these objects are in stable orbits and are not deemed hazardous.)

More: How we discovered 840 minor planets beyond Neptune – and what they can tell us

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