Death from above

I was reading a news report of an asteroid that that hit the earth’s atmosphere at Caribbean on 22^nd July this year. Fortunately the size of this asteroid was only three meters wide so no major damages. NASA admitted that it did not have any idea that this was coming thereby reiterating the need for a constant watch on the sky in case a massive asteroid comes hurling through space and crashing down the earth, which could cause wide spread damages to earth and all living beings.

Apophis -God of chaos Image Courtesy Google Images

An asteroid named after Ancient Egyptian god of evil, darkness and destruction Apophis of diameter 370 meters noticed in 2004 is on a potentially collision course with the earth. NASA have stated that it will not strike the earth but will fly close to earth in 2029 and the scientists will study the asteroid for a better under understanding but cannot rule out the possible impact decades later in 2068 as the close encounters with earth may affect some changes to the orbit and shape of the asteriod. In the event this 27 billion kg asteroid strikes the earth the impact blast would be equivalent to 65000 times powerful than the atomic bomb on Hiroshima which is worrying matter indeed. 

One leading cosmochemist Natalie Starkey, who revealed one could even hit tomorrow. We need to understand what these things are made of and what their orbits are so we can actually protect the planet. “I think everyone should be concerned about it, but not worried. “I don’t think we need to be worried that tomorrow we’re going to all die in an asteroid impact, although it could happen. “I think it’s something we need to be concerned with for the future.” 

As per NEO (Near Earth Object) watch group of NASA there over 20,000 asteroid  large enough to be tracked in space before striking the earth. I just mentioned only one asteroid Apophis in previous paragraph and now imagine the probability of a asteroid strike on our universe... it is quite frightening isn’t it. 

Earth has been through five mast extinction and the last one was nearly 66 million years ago wherein the entire dinosaur species along with nearly three fourth of all other living beings were killed. There are two different theories put forth by the scientists to explain the fifth mass extinction. One is known as Alvarez Hypothesis which states that a massive asteroid of size 10-15 km wide slammed into the earth and thereby filling the atmosphere with gas, dust and debris that drastically altered the climate of the earth and thereby killing most living beings.. This theory gained some traction with the finding of a huge impact crater along the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Some scientists say that evidence of massive asteroid impact is not conclusive and the culprit may be the earth itself. Ancient lava flows in India known as the Deccan Traps seems to match the time of the fifth extinction resulting in volcanic rock coverage for over 200,000 square kilometres in layers that are in places more than 6000 feet thick and this could possibly mean that there had been a vast and massive eruption that would have choked the skies gases and thereby altered the earth’s climate drastically leading to the extinction.

Since the killer asteroid that struck the earth 66 million years back, many smaller asteroid and space rocks have struck the earth and thankfully we are yet to see a large object fly towards us. NASA says such events happen once in few million years and as a result the scientists are certain that sooner or later it is bound to happen and we have to make preparations to protect the earth when it happens.

I am sure that most people would have watched the blockbuster science fiction movie of 1998 named  Armageddon  wherein few people fly on to a huge asteroid heading to earth to drill and plant nuclear bomb to blow the asteroid to pieces may become a reality in future with multinational task force to protect the earth from asteroid impacts. With so much progress in science in last few decades i am sure scientists will come up with a solution to protect the earth in such events. 

So finally guys/gals do not be worried of death from above.. live your life as it unfolds....Cheers