Recently, NASA scientists said that there is an asteroid that will most likely collide with Earth on May 6! The asteroid is not small, its diameter is 420 feet or 128 meters, which is equivalent to the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Once collided with Earth, it was equivalent to detonating 230 tons of TNT explosives at the impact site. There is still a lot of probability of such a terrible event, and unlike the previous tens of millions of one, this time there is a full 3800. What happens in the event of a collision? Will the earth be devastated by this?
A time bomb floating in space.
In the vastness of the universe, there are countless "time bombs" that may pose a threat to the earth. Among them, the most common are asteroids running in space, as well as some space junk emitted by humans.
The solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago by combining a pile of gas and dust. The enormous gravitational force condenses the gas and dust into a sphere, and some of the remaining material forms countless tiny stones, and the mutual gravitational pull between these stones allows them to combine and form planets. After billions of years of development, many asteroids have formed in space. Ninety-eight percent of the planets are in the planetary belt between Mars and Jupiter, and under Jupiter's enormous gravitational pull, they all have a stable trajectory and generally do not deviate from the orbit.
However, some relatively small planets have become fish in the net, and the trajectory of these sneaking out planets is not necessarily, and some asteroids will get closer and closer to the earth in the process of running. According to astronomy, planets with a distance of less than 45 million kilometers from the Earth's orbit are relatively safe and are called near-Earth planets. However, there are some asteroids that intersect with The Earth at a distance of less than 7.5 million kilometers, and once the "warning line" of 7.5 million kilometers is exceeded, these asteroids are likely to collide with the Earth. Exceeding the warning line and exceeding a diameter greater than 140 meters is considered a potential threat. According to statistics, among the asteroids that have been discovered so far, more than 2,000 potentially threatening celestial bodies have appeared.
Among them, the biggest threat is the asteroid Apophis, which was discovered in 2004, which is also the closest threatening object to Earth. It is reported that Apophis will pass by the side of the earth again in 2029, and the closest distance to the earth is only 32,000 kilometers, which is very close. In 2036, Apophis will continue to visit The Earth's periphery, making Apophis the most dangerous planet in recent years. Thankfully, the probability of this Apophis colliding with Earth will be less than one in ten thousand.
Although Apophis does not crash into Earth, planetary impact events also have their own laws. Similar to Apophis, asteroids with a diameter of just over 140 meters will visit Earth once in about 30,000 years, and as the diameter increases, the frequency of impacts will become lower. The largest asteroids are about 6 kilometers in diameter, but this can only occur 100 million years apart.
Although the floating of the planets has posed a huge threat to the earth, the space junk generated by humans should not be underestimated. With the liftoff of countless satellites and space shuttles, humans began to visit the universe more frequently. In some space activities, some space junk will be generated, and the more common space junk is mainly based on "satellite debris". This space junk can sometimes fall in space, posing a threat to The Earth.
The terrible consequences of planetary impacts on Earth
Once the overlord of the earth was the dinosaurs, and now we can only glimpse their former strength through the fossils of the museum. There are many theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs, the most widely spread of which is caused by the impact of the planet on the earth. Although this statement is not official, it shows the power of the planet hitting the earth.
Planets hit Earth much more powerfully than volcanoes and tsunamis, and if a planet hits Earth, because the shape of the Earth is a sphere, most people on Earth can't see the planet coming. After the planet lands on Earth, it will first smash a large crater, and then an earthquake of magnitude 11 will spread around the crater.
Within 8 hours, it will spread around the world with 88 decibels of noise and an air shock wave of 200 kilometers per hour, destroying countless buildings and trees along the way, and under the double blow, the buildings will be wiped out. In another 8 hours, the tsunami will arrive, rolling up 75 meters of huge waves to invade the coastal earth, and the buildings and trees here will once again be baptized.
There may be some parts of the earth that will not be affected by the current explosion, but it is not the end, it is just the beginning. The moment it hits the Earth, it will evaporate more than 100,000 cubic kilometers of rock, which will become many fine particles, merge into the stratosphere in the atmosphere, and then cover the world with the movement of the air current.
This is similar to the nuclear winter caused by the explosion of a nuclear bomb, the sun's rays cannot reach the earth, the surviving plants cannot get enough sunlight to survive, and human beings also have to face 24 hours a day of darkness and cold winter. It will take a few years for these particles to land completely, during which time all crop yields will be reduced and humanity will face food shortages. After the dust falls, it also triggers a series of sequelae that can last for decades.
It was in such a terrible winter environment that the dinosaurs went extinct in the face of lack of food, lack of light and heat. In case human beings really encounter this day, even if they do not become passers-by in history like dinosaurs, it is estimated that human civilization will go back many years and return to ancient times. Of course, such a probability is also very small, it is said that it will only appear once in hundreds of millions of years, and the birth of human beings may only be tens of millions of years. But we can't take it lightly, because there are still many potential threats in the universe, and they may come to Earth at any time, and we don't know when and how powerful they are.
Impending threats
We often see some plots in disaster movies about planets hitting the earth, and the scenes in them are very scary. In describing the two people as fighting on the gas head, we would say that they are Mars hitting the earth, which also shows the fierce reaction under the collision. Today, we don't just hear stories of planets hitting Earth when the dinosaurs went extinct, it's likely that it will happen in the near future as well.
NASA and ESA jointly announced that an asteroid is likely to descend on Earth. The pyramid-sized asteroid, called JF1, will most likely land on Earth on May 6, 2022, with a 3,800 chance. This probability is ten percent high in terms of the probability of a planet colliding with the Earth, because the probability of the past has been in tens of millions, so we have to be vigilant in case the uninvited guest lands.
Moreover, the probability of the planet colliding with the eastern part of the earth is very low, and it is very likely that it will land in the western part of the earth. Therefore, NASA attaches great importance to this and is closely observing and following up. Scientists say that once JF1 hits the earth, it will have serious consequences. If you land in an urban area, you will immediately destroy the entire city, and the whole city may not be doomed, because although the planet is not particularly large, it will also cause an explosion yield of nearly 230 tons of TNT. Using the power of a nuclear bomb as a reference, a normal-equivalent nuclear bomb is equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, and the power of a planetary impact is equivalent to more than 150 nuclear bombs exploding at the same time, which is thousands of times greater than the power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Will the planet come to Earth on May 6? Although this is a very small probability event, we cannot deny its existence, after all, the probability of winning the lottery is so small, there are still lucky people who can win. We can only hope that Earth will not become the "lucky one" hit by the planet.
Although the probability of hitting is still not particularly large, it cannot be ignored, we can only hope that this terrible JF1 can avoid the earth, otherwise the damage to humans will be immeasurable. But this is not the only one, it is said that on November 21, an asteroid named SF6 will also come to join in the fun, although the possibility is smaller than JF1, but it also shows that there are many potential threats in the universe.
The aforementioned planet Apophil is the planet in human history that is most likely to hit Earth. In 2004, astronomers discovered the wanderer in the universe, who was more than twice as big as JF1 and had a diameter of 270 meters, which was quite amazing. At that time, it was estimated that the probability of Apophil hitting the earth was as high as one in 37, which was also the most likely. But after the planet skimmed over Earth, the scientists corrected the previous claim, arguing that the probability of an Apophir impact rose to one in ten thousand. Once Apophir landed on Earth, it would be twice as powerful as JF1, which was equivalent to the explosion of more than 300 nuclear bombs, which was quite amazing. Fortunately, when Apophire passed through the earth, he was 29,450 kilometers away from the earth, which would not pose any threat to the earth.
Of course, at present, there are still many ways for humans to deal with planetary impacts on the earth, the most common of which are two main, one is to crush the planet, and the other is to "deflect" the planet. There are many ways to smash the planet, such as weapons, lasers, flying vehicles, etc. The "belt deviation" is to divert the planet from the channel through the action of gravity, thereby avoiding the Earth. So based on the above two methods, humans don't have to worry too much about the threat of planets hitting the earth.