MessageToEagle.com – One day everything must come to an end and now it seems we know when life on Earth will end. A couple of asteroid watchers have announced they have an exact date for the arrival of a doomsday asteroid that may wipe out our civilization and life on Earth.
The bad thing is the Earth as we know it will cease to exist. The good thing is it won’t happen in the near future, the date could be wrong and even if it’s correct there may be some way to prevent this global catastrophe.
Image credit: theprepperdome.com
Husband and wife, Jay and Anne Tate run the Spaceguard Centre, British Observatory in Shropshire. Their mission is to track NEOs, or near-earth objects and watch for potentials dangers that could mean the end of the world.
It’s the nation’s only observatory devoted to monitoring asteroids and comets that could one day hurtle toward the planet. The former Army major and his schoolteacher wife aim to identify any stray asteroids in time for authorities to protect the Earth against the threat.
Jay Tate at the Spaceguard Centre Image credit: The Birmingham Mail
When a potential cosmic threat has been discovered, Jay and Anne Tate must report the sighting to authorities so that space agencies have time to prepare some form of defense.
But how do you defend yourself against the apocalyptic power of a boulder hurtling towards us at 35,000 miles per hour? Needless to say it’s a very difficult task. One way is thorough deflection – shunting the fiery objects freed from the asteroid belt. It is currently the preferred method of preventing mankind from perishing.
But we must be realistic and understand that the odds are chilling and stacked against us.
The observatory in UK is currently tracking more than 50 space rocks that are definitely on course towards our planet.
NASA and the European Space Agency’s Risk List, a catalogue of “near Earth” objects that have shown infant capabilities of wiping out the human race, has highlighted no fewer than 677 ethereal objects that are a cause for growing concern.
One of the most dangerous cosmic killers is asteroid 1950 DA. The doomsday asteroid will either brush our atmosphere or strike with sufficient spite to level life.
The position and orbit path of 1950 DA on April 5, 2002. View is from above the orbit plane of the Earth, looking south. Graphic from J. Giorgini (JPL).
Date Of Arrival
According to NASA, asteroid (29075) 1950 DA was discovered on 23 February 1950. It was observed for 17 days and then faded from view for half a century. Then, an object discovered on 31 December 2000 was recognized as being the long-lost 1950 DA.
It is a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. The exact date when the doomsday asteroid will come close is on March 16, 2880.
According to NASA, “’the uncertainty region that surrounds an object then is large, sometimes spanning a significant part of the inner solar system. Additional measurements made a few days or weeks later shrink the region such that the Earth falls out of it and the risk goes to zero.
See also:
Growing Risk That Earth Will Be Hit By Asteroid From The Taurids
Comet Or Asteroid? Unique Binary Object Discovered By Hubble
Unique Situation With Asteroid 1950
Although other currently unknown asteroids may pose a risk before 2880, the situation with 1950 DA is unique. It is based on observations spanning 51 years, has high-precision radar data, and has a favorable orbit geometery. All these factors together allow us to predict far into the future and explore the physical limits of such collision probability predictions.
Predictions so far in the future require knowledge of the physical nature of the asteroid. How it spins in space, what it is made of, its mass, and the variations in the way it reflects light affect the way it moves through space over time. Such detailed knowledge of 1950 DA does not exist at present and may not be available for years, decades or longer.
Asteroid 1950 DA, Arecibo Observatory radar image. Colored image to the right.
However, because of the long-time span involved (878 years – 35 generations!), there is plenty of time to improve our knowledge.’
Will It Hit Earth?
If it is eventually decided 1950 DA needs to be diverted, the hundreds of years of warning could allow a method as simple as dusting the surface of the asteroid with chalk or charcoal, or perhaps white glass beads, or sending a solar sail spacecraft that ends by collapsing its reflective sail around the asteroid. These things would change the asteroids reflectivity and allow sunlight to do the work of pushing the asteroid out of the way.
There is no reason for concern over 1950 DA. The most likely result will be that St. Patrick’s Day parades in 2880 will be a little more festive than usual as 1950 DA recedes into the distance, having passed Earth by.”
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