Space is full of mysterious objects that possess an unimaginable threat to our Earth. From solar flares and stellar winds to the black holes and gamma ray bursts, our planet today stands at a point wherein a number of stellar events can wreak havoc and wipe off the life from our planet. While these threats might seem distant at this point, but there is another celestial object that can prove to be catastrophic for our planet– Asteroids.
According to a team of astrophysicists from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, the world must be prepared for an asteroid strike. Scientists said that it’s only a matter of time before a large asteroid strike the Earth bringing an unprecented amount of destruction on our planet.
“It is a case of when an asteroid collision will happen, rather than if it will happen,” said lead scientist Alan Fitzsimmons while highlighting the threat ahead of the Asteroid Day, which is observed on June 30 every year, IANS reported.
Citing the Tunguska event of 1908, Fitzsimmons said that an asteroid strike is inevitable.
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To give you a brief history lesson, a large asteroid exploded near the Stony Tunguska River in Russia on the morning June 30, 1908, flattening nearly 2,000 square kilometres of the forest. Though there were no human casualties, the impact downed nearly 80 million trees in the area. Furthermore, reports suggest that the impact of the event was equivalent to 3 to 10 megatons of TNT (which is nearly 300 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima).
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Today an explosion like that can destroy any mega city. Scientists and engineers have detected over 1,800 asteroids near the Earth that can prove to be potentially hazardous for the Earth. “Astronomers find Near-Earth Asteroids every day and most are harmless. But it is still possible the next Tunguska would take us by surprise, Fitzsimmons warned.
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