Killer Asteroids – One Day an Asteroid Will Slam Into Our Planet
Written by Marko on January 31, 2008
A huge rock with a diameter of hundreds of meters is coming towards the Earth 15 times faster than a riffle bullet. Astronomers have calculated the exact impact time. We can only wait for the destruction. Then the asteroid reaches the upper levels of the atmosphere. In few seconds that huge rock touches down. Destruction much worse than hundreds of atomic bombs begins.
As the rock digs into the planet, a huge shock wave and tsunami start moving fast and destroying everything on their way. A gigantic mushroom cloud with millions of tons of debris starts forming into the atmosphere. In one hour people on the opposite side of the planet will be bombarded by thousands of fireballs. In few hours the whole planet is on fire. Our home has turned to hell.
Is this true? Is this going to happen? Unfortunately yes. One day it will happen, as it has happened in the past as well. Hold on! Even though this is a scary fact, we need to take into account few things. First of all it may take very long time until an asteroid gets on course towards the Earth. It may take hundreds or thousands of years, even longer. We must remember that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and human race has calculated only 2008 years so far. Asteroid impacts happen in space, but in such a big time scale that we usually do not understand it.
Another important thing we need to take into account is the probability. The universe is just huuuuge and our planet is rather small. The probability of a direct asteroid impact is very small, which means an asteroid has to be very lucky to get into the course towards our planet. As an example, a day before yesterday an asteroid missed our planet pretty close, but still tens of thousands of kilometers away. Tonight it seems that asteroid WP5 will miss Mars by 30.000 kilometers. Anyhow, one day, may be not soon, but one day an asteroid WILL slam into Earth. This is a fact we cannot deny. Instead we must prepare to protect our planet and human race.
In 2004 an asteroid with a diameter of 250 meters was found. Astronomers realized that it is going miss the Earth very close or it might hit it. This asteroid was named Apophis (99942 Apophis, 2004 MN4), based on Greek name of an Egypt god Apep, the god of evil, destruction and darkness. Apophis is big enough to wipe out the human race on planet Earth. When Apophis was found, it was estimated that it will slam into the Earth on 2029. Later on it was found out that most likely this will not happen, but there still is a danger. It is possible that if Apophis comes close enough, the gravitation of our planet can redirect the course of Apophis. This would cause Apophis to hit Earth on 2036. Hopefully the probability for this is only 1:45.000, so we should not start building a new society under the surface of our planet.
Asteroids are scary things, especially if we do not understand the big picture. See these three videos below to know more about asteroids and Apophis.
Heh heh.. Fantastic Hollywood stuff, eh? Isn’t that scary? Yes it is, but only because it was filmed in that way. It is better to understand the realities and scales of the universe. Take a look at what Phil Plait from BadAstronomy.Com says in his video.
Feeling better now? Good. It is good to understand the danger of asteroids, but we should not create panic. If you feel this post was too dramatic, forgive me. I just wanted to get your attention 
Image source.
This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com!
Comments
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04-11-2008
7:41 am
Dragoonx42
I remember my first time on this website. My friend and I were looking for something totally new, something we haven’t read or heard about. We were so tired of college, and didn’t have too much time to go out. And we found this site, and now we come ever day to read some cool information or to discuss something with other people. It’s interesting to hear different points of view!
04-11-2008
2:40 pm
marko
Hey, nice to hear that Dragonx42! I am glad you enjoy my humble blog. Very nice to hear that.. thanks for leaving your comment!
05-18-2008
9:09 pm
lilaznboy
im so scared no seriously i am
05-19-2008
9:10 am
marko
No need to be scared, may be just a little bit worried
09-05-2008
6:57 am
Salandra
The earth has been around way longer then 2008 years dumbass. Stop writing bullshit
10-12-2008
10:07 pm
kek
“and human race has calculated only 2008 years so far.”
“The earth has been around way longer then 2008 years dumbass. Stop writing bullshit”
ok. Stop writing bullshit Salandra.
01-18-2009
2:45 pm
John
The videos were talking about different asteroids. How does Phil Plait’s video refute the danger of Apophis, that the 3 part documentary describes?