There is a movie with the theme that the Earth may face the final day due to a planetary collision.
It is ‘Planetary Collision: The Last Days on Earth’, which was released in February. Recently, American astronomers An asteroid large enough to destroy a planet has been discoveredannounced that it This asteroid is in the distant future Estimated to pass Earth’s orbit in thousands of yearsdid. Maybe the story in the movie will come true.
A research team at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, USA discovered three giant asteroids that were close to Earth and published the findings in the international journal ‘Astronomical Journal’.
of the discovered asteroids The asteroid predicted to approach the Earth is ‘2022 AP7’, and is classified as a ‘Potential Threat Asteroid (PHA)’ with a high probability of colliding with the Earth.do. The 2022 AP7 ranges from 1.1 km to 2.3 km in diameter. This is the largest PHA discovered since 2014, and a colossal size that ranks in the top 5% of PHA observed in the history of astronomical observations.
According to Scott Sheppard, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Institute for Science, asteroids with a diameter of more than 1 kilometer are considered planet-destroying asteroids. When a huge asteroid collides with Earth, dust and pollutants rise into the atmosphere and persist for years, making life difficult to survive.
Scott Shepard said:The Earth’s surface will be severely cooled as sunlight will not reach the Earth.to be. Mass extinctions not seen for millions of years might come.”
Although 2022 AP7 is an asteroid that will pose a major threat to Earth, the researchers believe that there is no need to worry right away. “2022 AP7 will come slowly across Earth’s orbit, but this will be centuries later” he said.
“Also, we don’t know exactly enough regarding the orbit of 2022 AP7 to say a lot regarding the risks in the centuries ahead,” he added.
NASA is developing a way to change the trajectory of an asteroid to prevent it from colliding with Earth. In September, NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid approaching Earth. Escape the asteroid from orbit toward EarthShiki successfully carried out the Dart mission.
Darts are expected to be used to protect the earth from space objects approaching the earth in the future. However, it is still unclear whether the dart-like method will be effective in handling an asteroid as large as the 2022 AP7.
Jay Tate, director of the National Near Earth Objects Information Center in Wales, said:Given the size of the 2022 AP7, a dart-like method may not be suitable.“But we have a lot of time. By hitting the asteroid several times with darts, it is possible to slightly change its trajectory.”
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