Preventing our Extinction

—–It is a scary thing to imagine the Earth going through terrible crisis possibly ending life here as we know it. It is even more terrifying to imagine that time to come within our lifetime. According to Astronomers, in 2004 an asteroid called Apophis was was thought to a have a 2.7% chance of it hitting the Earth in 2029, a 1-in-200 chance making it the most dangerous astroid ever found. Fortunately, after many sources and observations astronomers came to the conclusion that Apophis was is definitely not going to hit Earth in 2026, but what if it would hit Earth? What exactly would we do in the length of 13 years? Would we fight back or simply let it happen?

—–One of the few choices we may have is to locate another habitable planet. In NASA’s Kepler mission, five earth-like planets were orbiting a sun-like star called Kepler-62. Theoretically they are hospitable to life given they are in their sun’s habitable zone. The blue on the plants could be frozen water. They were a great find, but they are still not as habitable as Earth. If we were to find a planet like Earth how far could it be and would it even be morally correct to go their in the first place? Our inhabiting another planet could mean the termination of whatever life is already there sort of like Avatar or the Native Americans. That could definitely be a moral issue but most would say the human race’s existence overrides our morals.

—–Another option would be to destroy whatever the source of the problem is. Within a 13 year time frame the government would most likely need to spend billions on some sort of defense weapon. By 2025, a NASA goal endorsed by President Barack Obama to send an astronaut to an asteroid is already estimated to cost two billion. Imagine the cost of sending an explosive large enough to destroy an asteroid the size of Manhattan. Blowing up an asteroid that size would require a huge explosion. According to simulations, the gravity attracting the different parts of an asteroid together is enough to make it reassemble itself within 7 to 18 hours from when it was blown up. A bomb of about 900 kilotons would be requires (which is by no means impossible for us to accomplish). On the other hand if the asteroid is larger than that, say the size of the one that hit the dinosaurs than the best course of action would be to use a bomb to redirect it’s course. Hopefully whatever strategy the government decides to come up with will prevent an apocalypse.

Featured Image: “Meteor falling to Earth” by State Farm at flickr.com

—————————————————————Works Cited:

“Apophis: The Asteroid That Could Smash Into The Earth.” Better Living Through Astronomy::DeepAstronomy.com.     ——-N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2013.

” Two new Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like star found.” Zee News: Latest News Headlines, Current Live Breaking ——-News from India & World. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2013.

“Money needed to prevent big asteroid strike despite low chance – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., ——-World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2013.

Fox, Stuart. “Are Our Asteroid-Destroying Nukes Big Enough? | Popular Science.” Popular Science | New Technology, ——-Science News, The Future Now. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 May 2013.