A Life-Ender Asteroid Is Coming, And We Have To Prepare For It Now

Bill Nye, the current CEO of Planetary Society, incidents like the clash of the Earth and an asteroid 66 million years ago, which killed off the dinosaur, can happen again.

However, the dinosaurs went extinct because they could not do anything about that disaster, unlike us. We have measures against the asteroid threat and what we should do is to prepare for that day right now.

The first thing we need to do is to identify that lethal piece of space rock, which we can be positive about. NASA said that it has found out about 9 out of 10 of such objects that have the potential to threaten life on Earth. Each of these rocks has the size of a mountain, but none of them can hit us in the near future.

There is no threat for life on Earth, but there are still asteroids flying pass our planet that can cause severe damage to a smaller area, like the scale of a state. In this case, it is our job to develop more sensitive detective systems.

One of such tools is coming to reality. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope based in Chile will start working next year. The telescope can identify 8 to 9 out of 10 asteroids that have the potential to hit us.

NASA has its own plan to detect dangerous asteroids, and its measure comes in the form of the Near-Earth Object Camera. Its underlying principle is to find their heat signature by using infrared light.

After finding out about the potential threat, what comes next is coordination. If an asteroid hits Earth that will be a global catastrophe, so nations have to join hands to solve this problem.

We are not short of solutions to deal with the problem. We may have years or even decades to prepare so an aircraft could be launched and drifted with the asteroid, and then knock it off course with a gravitational tug.

If time is not on our side, using a nuclear bomb to blow off a large portion of the rock will probably change its flying course. The shock wave from the explosion may drive the rock away too.

Nye talked about a plan called the Laser Bees, which uses a number of smaller space crafts. They will take their calculated places and shoot laser beams to a single spot on the asteroid. The space rock’s materials will be vaporized, and a jet that can push the asteroid to another direction will be created.

Asteroids have the potential to cause another mass extinction on Earth, but we have enough equipment to prevent that. In fact, there are many things we can learn from them. These space rocks have been drifting around ever since our solar system was born. They have the power to end life on Earth, but they might be the ones helping it thrives in the first place. Learning more about asteroids can be a way to make our space missions become more fruitful as well as enhancing our life quality on Earth.

After all, what most experts agree on is the threat posed by asteroids, and if we do not take action now, a gloomy future is waiting for us. The question here is not will that disaster happens but instead, when it will happen.