End Of The World: Earth Due For An Extinction Level Event Says NASA Scientist; Large Asteroids Or Comets To Wipe Out Civilization
Dr. Joseph Nuth of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center revealed that Earth is woefully unprepared for surprise comet or asteroid. He warned that the planet is facing an extinction-level event, which could lead to a doomsday scenario akin to what happened to dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Dr. Nuth shared his observation at the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union in San Francisco where he noted that large asteroids and comets tend to hit 50-60 million years apart. He believes that Earth is already past due from being hit by another comet or asteroid, which killed dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The NASA scientist warned that humans are not prepared for extinction-level events. Though potentially dangerous asteroids and comets are extremely rare, Nuth explained how humans can deflect cosmic dangers hurtling towards Earth. He proposed building an interceptor rocket to keep in storage with periodic testing.
Dr. Nuth cited the Earth's close encounter with comets in 1996 and 2014. The first comet hit Jupiter while the second passed within cosmic spitting distance of Mars. The second planet's discovery was only done 22 months before it came close to the Red planet. That period is insufficient for a deflection mission, said Nuth.
According to Dr. Nuth, it is imperative for NASA's planetary defense office to build a store a rocket that will be deployed once the big one is on the way. Dr. Nuth said that readiness is a must to mitigate the possibility of a sneaky asteroid that might come from the sun where it is harder to detect.
More than 90% of near-Earth objects larger than a kilometer pose a big threat to the planet, according to NASA. These celestial objects could cause apocalyptic devastation on Earth. Out of the 1,748 potentially hazardous asteroids identified by NASA, more than 800 have one-kilometer widths. For more your information about near-earth asteroids, see the video below.
