Asteroid, small bodies that wander the infinite space.
Well the recent news of a big asteroid that was on near collision with the earth is a big surprise.
And why this news cannot be ignored!
First of all the discovery time of asteroid was too short.
- The asteroid was spotted just 4 days before it crossed its nearest earth point!!
- Secondly due to such a short notice the size was estimation was wrong and the asteroid was twice as large!!
In order to prevent a asteroid from colliding with earth we should have early knowledge and probably years before collision to prepare an impact avoidance strategy.
Had this asteroid collided with earth a large amount of human race would have been wiped out and earth atmosphere would have been affected so bad that nothing would thrive for at least next 100 years
Asteroid are know to have caused mass extinctions on earth.
After the impact takes place large amount dust will spread in to atmosphere which will reduce the amount of sunlight reaching earth. this will result in a cold atmosphere on earth known as impact winter causing
massive damage to both biosphere and humans alike.
When a impact with earth occurs , the amount of damage depends upon the size as well as the speed of the asteroid.
So comets which have high speed can cause more damage than a relatively bigger asteroid.
The most devastation extinction was caused by the asteroid at Chicxulub in Mexico that was 10km in diameter and caused a impact crater of 180 km diameter and is thought to be the main reason for dinosaur extinction.
One of the best know recent event of asteroid impact is the Tunguska event in Russia in 1908. In this event a large asteroid burst just 6-9 km above earth surface causing the wiping of a thousand of km of forest and if it had occurred over a city it would have destroyed the entire city.
Although this time we have been saved next time we wont be so lucky, so we should devise a strategy and be completley ready to avoid a human extinction event.
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