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WHAT Would Happened IF An Asteroid Collided With Earth

What Would Happen To Our World? And What Is NASA Doing?

By Abdul Hannan SaifPublished 3 months ago 4 min read
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What would actually happen if an asteroid was on a collision course with our planet if you don't know hundreds of pieces of space rock fall through our atmosphere every single year but luckily they burn up on entry and were simply large enough to have any noticeable impact however there's evidence to suggest that the earth has experienced several large strikes throughout his history so there's every possibility that it could happen again to prepare ourselves for the worst case scenario NASA has been running a series of tests to see how well-prepared we are and unfortunately for us were not.

Everyday more than a hundred tons of dust and small particles fall to the earth and on average a car-sized object enters the atmosphere once a year and burns up creating an amazing fireball streaking through the sky larger objects about the size of a football field collide once every two thousand years in a potential extinction level collision is thought to happen every few million years which would make one long overdue generally anything less than 82 feet across will burn up and cause very minor damage anything measuring up to half a mile across will cause significant damage to the impact site anything larger than that and could have worldwide consequences currently the largest known potentially dangerous object in space is taught to test which is just over three miles across and there's an asteroid known as Apophis which is expected to pass incredibly close to Earth in 2029 that's a thousand two hundred and thirteen feet wide there are though much larger objects in space that we know of but luckily aren't currently on a collision course with earth in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter for example there are some that are as much as 583 miles long if one of these were to divert cores towards us we could be in some serious trouble.

So to prepare for such an event NASA is working with space agencies across the world to simulate an impact something they do every couple years basically they want to learn how much warning we'd get how people would realize and whether there's anything that could be done to protect people and to do fictional scenarios was created that began with the discovery of a near-earth object in March of 2019 with initial signs that it could make an impact with the earth in 2027 in the lead-up to the planetary defense conference which took place in early May of 2000 the 19 for their information was released about the asteroid this included details about his eccentric orbits uncertainty about his composition and refined predictions about his exact path which suggests the odds of a collision are about 1 in 100 with his orbital path the asteroid would remain observable for the rest of the year before fading from view and requiring larger telescopes to monitor delegates at the conference were then tasked with planning how resources can be dedicated to learn more about the asteroid the options ranged from training more telescopes on it Wow it's arranged to potential for launching a spacecraft to monitor and more closely and if the worst is confirmed options for how its path could be deflected others focused more on the societal impact of such a discovery with eight years of planning governments would be able to build safe zones perhaps underground where people could be protected from an impact of course the effectiveness of these would really depend on the exact point of impact and how severe the impact was something that reinforces the importance of finding out much more about the asteroid is trajectory and the materials that is made from.

Finally there's the question about when the information about a near-earth object is released to the public with odds of a collision being calculated as 1 in 100 is still a remote possibility and it could be irresponsible to tell everyone if it were to cause massive panic law enforcement and emergency services would need to be prepared for the public reaction and the timing at which information like this is released would be crucial so basically a while it may seem like the space agencies are indulging in games of science fiction projects like these are incredibly important they're always a chance that a large object could strike our planet and we really don't know how much warning will actually get scenarios like this help emergency planners such as those at FEMA understand what information would be available to them and what their options may be while we're not at the level of concerns seen and movies like Armageddon and deep impact yeah it's it's best to be prepared so if you're drilling off the coast somewhere for oil you might be called upon.

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About the Creator

Abdul Hannan Saif

Blogger | Writer | Explorer | wish to inspire, inform and help others to see fascinating discoveries and live a fulfilled life!

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Comments (3)

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  • Queen Minaak3 months ago

    ❤️ amazing

  • anha saif3 months ago

    Very informative

  • anha saif3 months ago

    Good work👍🏻

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