This Is How Scientists Plan To Save Humanity From An Asteroid

This Is How Scientists Intend To Spare Humankind From A Space rock

The last time a huge catastrophic asteroid hit the earth, it was around 65 million years ago, and it wiped out 3wipedters of all life on earth. That was the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. This sort of occasion occurs around 100 million years. If an asteroid were to hit our earth today, it could mean the literal annihilation of our species. So what is the plan to deal with such an event? What's more, is there whatever should be possible about it?

This Is How Scientists Plan To Save Humanity From An Asteroid

I know it seems like we are always scaring you guys with asteroid stories, but I thought a great way to talk about this subject would be to focus on what will be done to protect the inhabitants from the earth from such an event. We all know by now that scientists are planning for an earth asteroid collision, we did a whole video on that's clickable on your screen right now. Unfortunately, regardless of what Hollywood movies tell you, the way we would deal with an asteroid does not include a bunch of explosions. When an asteroid hits our planet, It will literally shake our planet.

There will be volcano eruptions and earthquakes. Huge tsunamis will wallop the coastlines, and the skies will go dark with debris and dust that covers the sun. Back in 1998, Congress told NASA that they had to identify all the killer asteroids in our vicinity that are potentially hazardous. NASA currently identifies and tracks 90 percent of those potentially hazardous objects that are 450 feet or larger. A group of researchers from around the world just met at the University of Maryland to figure out what to do in this situation.

If an object is less than 165 feet, the international consensus is to evacuate the threatened region. It is possible for scientists to predict the country it will strike 2 weeks ahead of time. Days from effect, it very well may be limited to inside many kilometers. Because all the potentially hazardous asteroids are being tracked, we would likely know about a collision for years to come. That's plenty of time to pick up and move to another area of the planet, far away from the impact zone. Sure, it would suck to move away from your home, but it would also suck to die during an asteroid strike. Gotta prioritize.

Okay, so what about bigger asteroids that have the potential to wipe out all life on earth? Well nuking them isn't an option. If you nuke an asteroid, you risk that asteroid breaking up into smaller pieces and subsequently crashing into multiple places on earth. In the event a large asteroid was on its way to our planet, scientists would, instead, launch a device toward the asteroid to change its trajectory and bump it off course. Another option is a gravitational tug boat. if you put a large object near an asteroid that affects its gravity, you can use that object to physically pull the asteroid off course. Nuclear weapon use against asteroids is only regarded as a last resort. They are actually technically banned by the outer space treaty of 1967.

But if its the fate of our planet that's at stake, I would imagine that nuclear weapons could be considered. Again, I gotta prioritize. For this option, we would send a nuke to the general area of the asteroid, where it would explode, also sending the threatening asteroid off course. According to one study, you could deflect an asteroid up to 800 meters in diameter. Being that an asteroid earth collision could be years and years away, our technology will be a lot better by then. We will have new advanced techniques for dealing with this type of thing. So not to worry, for now, hey, at least there is a plan for dealing with an asteroid. the dinosaurs definitely didn't have a plan.