Experts Warn of Devastating Asteroid That Could Hit Earth
A leading astrophysicist has warned that a rogue asteroid is definitely going to hit Earth and people may have no way of knowing when it is coming. The warning comes ahead of the upcoming International Asteroid Day, a UN-designated event intended to raise awareness of the threats posed by space rocks.
Asteroid Day will happen on June 30. On that day in 1908, a small asteroid exploded over Tunguska in Siberia. The meteoroid measured only 50 meters wide, but its explosion was 333–500 times more powerful than the atomic bomb, enough to flatten 800 square miles, destroy 80 million trees and cause an intensity five tremor on the Ritcher scale.
There were no casualties as the rock crashed in an isolated area. But if it happened over a major city or a densely populated area, the results could have been devastating and millions of people might have been killed. Scientists say it is just a matter of time before a larger asteroid hits Earth.
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Dr. Alan Fitzsimmons, an expert at Astrophysics Research Center at Queen's University Belfast, said that they have discovered over 1,800 potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA), but these are just one percent of thousands of meteoroids that could potentially wipe out humanity and "destroy life."
"There are many more waiting to be found," said Fitzsimmons who contributes to the European Research Council's NEOshield-2 project, which is meant to observe any PHAs that could strike Earth in the near future and devise cost-effective methods and ways to prevent such a collision.
"It is important to know that scientists and engineers have made great strides in detecting Near-Earth Asteroids and understanding the threat posed by them," he went on to say. "Although we are much better at finding larger asteroids, that does us no good if we are not prepared to do something about them," he added.
