Record number of unknown asteroids seen whizzing past Earth in 2020 – And it could be broken again in 2021

Less than 50%

Astronomers detected thousands of previously unknown near-Earth asteroids last year. And this record may be broken this year AGAIN…

Record year in 2020

Since 1998, when NASA kicked off the biggest search for near-Earth asteroids, scientists have detected more than 25,000 of them. And 2020 turned out to be a record year for discoveries.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting many of the surveys, astronomers catalogued 2,958 previously unknown near-Earth asteroids over the course of the year.

[link to strangesounds.org (secure)]