Did you know that potential Earth-smashing asteroids are constantly whizzing by our little defenseless planet?
Sorry. Now you have one more reason to lose sleep.
Asteroids, as I’m sure you already know, are chunks of space debris believed to be from the creation of the Solar System — of which Earth is a part.
The next rather large asteroid — estimated to be the size of a football stadium — was set to pass safely by our little home in the universe on Saturday, July 24. That same asteroid last zoomed past Earth in June 2008.
(BTW: It zipped by harmlessly again)
Scientists say there are about one million asteroids of various sizes careening around our Solar System and 22 of those could potentially prove to be dangerous to the Earth within the next 100 years.
In the 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history, our planet has been extremely lucky -- so far. Although there have been many near misses by asteroids and numerous impacts from comets and meteorites, only one asteroid has caused major damage to the Earth.
Around 66 million years ago, a giant asteroid struck the Earth near the Yucatan peninsula and the resulting impact is suspected to have wiped out the dinosaurs and set the stage for the rise of mammals.
Good for us, actually.
But really bad for the giant reptiles.
It’s nice to know NASA has a special agency assigned to keep a close watch on the known asteroids and other potentially harmful space debris. It’s called Sentry, an automated collision monitoring system.
But while most asteroids buzzing around our Solar System have charted orbits not currently aimed at Earth, there remains the possibility they could unexpectedly change course and veer toward us.
And then there’s the Deep Space Origin aspect.
In November 2017, the first interstellar (from outside our Solar System) cosmic visitor was detected.
“We have long suspected that these objects should exist, because during the process of planet formation a lot of material should be ejected from planetary systems,” said Karen Meech, an astronomer with the Hawaiian Institute for Astronomy that discovered the object, believed to be a small asteroid or comet.
“What's most surprising is that we've never seen interstellar objects pass through before.”
The Deep Space Object reportedly passed by Earth at a safe distance and hurtled on its way out of the Solar System -- not expected to ever return.
But what if someday astronomers locate an Earth-killing asteroid coming directly toward us?
What could we do about it?
Have you seen the movie “Armageddon”?
That’s the 1998 film that has Bruce Willis and his crack team of explosives experts ride a rocket up to the asteroid, land on it, and set explosives to blow it up before impacting Earth.
Is that possible?
Well, last year NASA was able to briefly land a small spacecraft on an asteroid, proving that part of the mission is technically feasible.
But landing a team of astronauts on an asteroid and taking off again before setting off an explosion to knock the asteroid off course and away from Earth?
Not so much.
So what do we do?
Paging Mr. Willis!
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