Don’t panic, you won’t live that long to see this happen. Scientists today have warned that a massive asteroid might crash into Earth in the year 2182! The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, is being tracked by astronomers who said that it has a good one-in-thousand chance of hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200. Infact scientists had said that it is most likely to hit on September 24, 2182.
The asteroid is 1,800 feet across and was first discovered in 1999. Scientists said that a rock of this size can cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction.
Scientists predict that humanity by that time will have enough advanced technology to be able to prevent such a disaster however any attempts to deflect the asteroid will have to take place at least 100 years before it is due to hit earth. That puts the efforts to deflect the asteroid to begin in 2082!
Earth is under constant threat of being hit with Asteroids. Another asteroid called Apophis has a one in 250,000 chance of striking the Earth in 2036. Plans are in progress to design a space probe that would land on Apophis to monitor its progress.
Scientists have actually begun working on plans on a method in which a nuclear warhead is detonated near the approaching asteroid to deflect it from its orbital path. Physicist David Dearborn of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in the US argued that nuclear weapons could be the best strategy for avoiding an asteroid impact – especially for large asteroids and with little warning time.
September 24, 2182 – if I were alive in that time, I would simply take a day off from work and stay home 🙂
[…] prediction comes just in time following a report earlier that an asteroid could hit earth in the year 2182. Scientists say that the asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, could cause major damage to earth and also a […]