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It’s clear, therefore, that the lack of craters doesn’t mean we’re safe! Scientists predict that a large asteroid, as big as the one that probably killed the dinosaurs, should hit Earth, on average, once every 10 million years. But it’s 65 million years since the last one! Smaller asteroids are passing close to Earth all the time. Only in 1989 , an asteroid around 1000 feet in diameter—that’s about 300 meters—called 4581 Asclepius, passed through the point where Earth was just six hours before. A hit from it would have caused the largest explosion in history. On average, researchers say, an object big enough to cause catastrophic results will hit Earth every 5000 years. Astronomers are already working on this. Since the late 1990 s, NASA has been conducting several surveys of space, the biggest of which is LINEAR. NASA aims to find 90 percent of all the near-Earth objects, in other words, NEOs, that are more than two thirds of a mile— 1 kilometer—in diameter. So far, tens of thousands of them have been found—most of them, fortunately, too far away to be dangerous for now. Also, a couple of near-misses have been identified, although usually rather late—after the object has passed Earth. In 2002 , an object 250 feet—about 80 meters—in diameter passed only 75000 miles—thats about 120000 kilometers—from Earth. So, why isnt Earth covered in craters, just like the Moon and some of the planets ? Well, there are two reasons . For one thing, Earth has an atmosphere but the Moon doesnt. Earths atmosphere slows asteroids down, causing heat which burns off their outer layers . Again, you can see this process yourself. Have you ever seen shooting stars ? They are actually the remains of broken up comets It is the burning that we can see. Most are very small, so they burn up completely and disappear before they get close to the ground . Another reason comes from geology . Earth’s surface is constantly moving—as you probably know, this is called the plate tectonic theory , and is