Graphic Shows Biggest and Closest Near Earth Objects (and it's not scary)

By Nancy Atkinson - October 26, 2010 at 8:09 AM UTC | Planetary Science
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Just for fun, graphic design student Zachary Vabolis created this fantastic graphic showing the closest and biggest Near Earth Objects. However, Vabolis wants to make clear that the information represented here is not meant to portray that the end of the world is nigh. His image has appeared on several websites recently, and some of the headlines have included words such as "doomsday," etc. But, that's not what he intended.

"I'm not sure if anyone who has seen my graphic is reading more into it than I intended," Vabolis told Universe Today, "but I wanted to state that I did not create this graphic to scare people. In fact if you look at the information it contains, Earth has almost no chance of being hit by any of the asteroids listed and NASA even mentions that as well on their website."

Vabolis said he created the graphic because he really enjoys creating projects outside of his curriculum to help hone his skills, plus it is just a fun pastime for him. "I've always been fascinated by outer space so I wanted to do a graphic within that subject," Vabolis said in an email. "I came up with the Near Earth Objects topic because it's a fairly current subject and after doing a little research I found that no one else had created such a graphic yet."

The graphic was created using the information on

NASA's Near Earth Object Fact Sheet website

, which states, "There are no known NEO's on a collision course with the Earth. There is a possibility that an as yet undiscovered large NEO may hit the Earth, but the probability of this happening over the next 100 years is extremely small."

So breathe easy and enjoy learning more about NEO's from Vabolis' graphic. You can see more of his work at

his page on Behance.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com