Astronomy Picture of the Day · December 31, 2002

A Year of Assessing Astronomical Hazards

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 31, 2002 is “A Year of Assessing Astronomical Hazards,” an image. It is credited to Drawing Credit: Dan Durda ( SWRI ). The original explanation runs about 171 words.

From the explanation

“Could an asteroid destroy civilization on Earth? Mountain-sized space rocks could potentially impact the Earth causing global effects, and perhaps even be mistaken for a nuclear blast of terrestrial origin.”

— APOD editors, December 31, 2002

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date: December 31, 2002
Type: Image
Credit: Credit: Drawing Credit: Dan Durda ( SWRI )
Copyright: No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length: About 171 words

All of December 2002 → · 2002 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Asteroids

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 31 in other years

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Source

Astronomy Picture of the Day, December 31, 2002 — science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2002-december-31-a-year-of-assessing-astronomical-hazards

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.