Over 1,000 asteroids threaten Earth!

Asteroids hovering around Earth

A few months ago the whole world was in a trance-like shock when it was reported that the world is on the brink of destruction and the end will come at any moment. But everyone were relieved as nothing happened and it is now completely forgotten.

But are you aware that about 1,400 potentially dangerous asteroids are orbiting alongside our Earth. And mind you any of them is big enough to wipe out humanity from the face of the world. We know that apocalyptic asteroids have hit in the past - palaeontologists believe an asteroid that struck Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was at least in part responsible for the mass extinction during the late Cretaceous that killed off 50 percent of the world's species, dinosaurs among them. Fortunately, NASA keeps an eye on them for us. But to get NASA's attention an asteroid has to be "relatively large and close" - at least 460 feet in diameter, and within 4.7 million miles of us. And there are plenty of space rocks hurtling through the solar system that fit those criteria.

We saw recently how frighting and destructive these near-earth objects can be when a meteor exploded over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia on February 15. An Earth-ending Asteroid would be much, much worse.

An asteroid about the size of a basketball hits and burns up in Earth's atmosphere about once a day. Larger ones about the size of a car do the same a few times a year, disintegrating into stunning fireballs.

A handout from NASA, the giant asteroid Vesta in an image taken from the NASA Dawn spacecraft about 3,200 miles above the surface in Space. NASA is currently tracking 1,400 asteroids orbiting earth which could destroy it.

The Near-Earth Object Project Office at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been monitoring them since 1998, and publishes information about these and other asteroids and their "impact risk."

It may sound like they are on top of this Earth-ending asteroid thing, but really, not so much. NASA notes that there is no "government agency, national or international" tasked with stepping in should an asteroid decide that Earth is in its way.

That's probably because we haven't found one that's going to end us yet. "None of these PHAs is a worrisome threat over the next hundred years, NASA said.

But such events only occur once every several million years, and the meteorite that, hit the Yucatan in the late Cretaceous, occur only once every 100 million years.

What ever said if we are expecting the end of the world we'll have to wait till 2182 when the asteroid RQ36 may hit the world. And the scientists are already aware of the danger and they say the chance of destroying life on Earth is 1\1000.

Another Wallenda's amazing feat:

Crossing Grand Canyon on a tightrope

Flying Wallendas circus family is famous for their unbelievable death-defying feats. During daring act several relatives have died including Karl Wallenda who fell to his death in Puerto Rico in 1978.

Nik Wallenda on his wire high above the Grand Canyon

But they cannot be stopped. They continue to indulge in such amazing acts as the word DEATH may not be in their vocabulary! This time it was Nik, the seventh generation high-wire artist who defied death while crossing the massive Grand Canyon.

With no safety harness and a 1,500ft drop to certain death beneath him, tightrope walker Nik Wallenda took 22 minutes to make the death-defying crossing in front of 500 spectators. He was forced to pause twice as he was blasted by 35mph gusts of wind. Carrying a pole for balance, the daredevil was twice forced to pause and crouch as he was blasted by 35mph gusts on the two-inch-wide cable.

Nik, who was wearing a microphone, was heard to say: "Thank you, Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God."

He took 22 minutes to finish the death-defying 1,300ft walk and jogged the final few steps as about 500 spectators, including wife Erendira, cheered him on. Nik, 34, said: "It was way more windy and it took every bit of me to stay focused the entire time."

After the trip across the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Nik has set his sights on tackling a 4,000ft wire between New York City's Empire State and Chrysler buildings.

Nik has earned seven world records and last year became the first to cross the brink of Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Bride does a bungee jump on her wedding day

Bungee jump bride Sarah Wilkinson

A bride shocked wedding guests by bungee jumping from a bridge during her wedding reception in Scotland recently.

Daredevil Sarah Wilkinson stunned family and friends when she celebrated tying the knot by plunging 130 feet off a bridge - twice.

She plunged from the Garry Bridge, near Killiecrankie, Perthshire, Scotland, in a rockabilly 1950s-style wedding dress. And she amazed husband Kev, 25, when she got out of the water and jumped in again - this time backwards. Sarah, from Bridge of Cally, said: "I like doing different things and there's nothing better than bungee jumping on your wedding weekend."

She got the idea after talking to staff at Nae Limits' Log Cabin in Kirkmichael - the wedding venue.

Sarah added: "It was my first jump and I absolutely loved it."