A little later today a chunk of rock the size of an aircraft carrier will silently pass between planet earth and the moon. Scientists on this planet will record it's passage with interest and the media will inform the public that earth has just had a " close call " !
That " close call" needs to be referenced to the magnitude of the universe. This asteroid - which has been named 2005 YU 55 - will be no closer than 320,000 kilometres at it's closest point to earth.
The interesting thing is that since humans inhabited this planet space rocks have probably whizzed by unnoticed. It is only in the past fifty years that we have developed the ability to send rockets off earth's surface containing astronauts, satellites, space probes - and even a manned space station. We now monitor space - and we have advanced knowledge of what is heading our way.
Getting hit by an asteroid is not that unusual - given the time that the universe has existed since the " big bang ". We have ample evidence of hit craters from the distant past - and on any night of the full moon those sort of impacts on our sky companion are obvious. It is thought that an asteroid impact killed off the Dinosaurs.
2005 YU 55 would not have destroyed earth had our paths coincided. It would certainly have wiped out a mega city and killed millions of people - and had it hit in the middle of an ocean it would have created a colossal tsunami.
There are probably trillions of similar meteorites orbiting in outer space and eventually one of them might get lucky. The history of mankind on this planet only goes back a few thousand years - and if the scientists are correct - the universe has been here for billions of years.
Someone once said that " ignorance is bliss ". The way science is progressing - if we are destined to suffer an asteroid strike it will come as no surprise. We will have advance warning - and maybe science will be able to devise some way of heading it off at the pass.
As we wave goodbye to 2005 YU 55 - maybe that is not something to interrupt a good nights sleep !
No comments:
Post a Comment