armageddon •

The nuclear warheads that were constructed during the Cold War will be used against meteors.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – After being affected a few times by rogue space objects, now Russia is targeting asteroids that are scheduled to pass near our planet. The 99942 Apophis is estimated to reach our planet in 2029, 2036 and in 2068. Neither of the calculated encounters has an impact risk, but Russia is not taking any chances.

Russia is targeting asteroids with the missile system built in the Cold War. The country’s plan is to build an entire missile network that would be able to destroy an asteroid in the blink of an eye. According to TASS, the system that there are planning to implement will be efficient against asteroids, comets, and meteors in between 65 and a maximum wide of 165 feet.

The biggest space object that could be destroyed at the snap of a finger is actually pretty small compared to what’s roaming around out there, in space. But it doesn’t take a large asteroid to do a lot of damage.

Russia is targeting asteroids because it has been through previous unpleasant experiences caused by the rogue frozen space rocks. The disaster at Chelyabinsk, for example, was caused by a meteor with a width of only 65 feet.

The meteor explosion that took place in 2013 in the northeast of Russia caused a shock wave that injured more than 1,500 individuals and severely damaged around 7,200 structures in six cities.

And the aftermath of the meteor impact was actually very light seeing as the meteor exploded in the atmosphere. If it had the chance to reach the Earth’s surface, then the damage would have been far more extensive.

The scariest part in the Chelyabinsk story is not the aftermath of the meteor impact, but the fact that the object was never detected by satellites. Its presence was acknowledged only in the moment in which it became visible in the Russian sky.

After a closer look at what happened at Chelyabinsk, the reason why Russia is targeting asteroids becomes very clear.

The missile system that they want to transform into an Earth defense station is actually the ICBM. During the cold war, both Russia and the United States were ready to defend themselves against each other. That is when the “Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles” were built. The weapons are still locked and ready to be deployed at the slight of the hand.

So there is no need to call Bruce Willis or SG-1 when a meteor, comet or asteroid is detected. Just send a notice to the Russian government and they will go nuclear on the threat.

Image source: www.pixabay.com

An asteroid is planetary mass object that travels through space at incredible speeds.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – According to NASA a big asteroid might pass near Earth next month. But don’t go calling Bruce Willis just yet, it seems that the 100-foot rock trajectory will not intertwine with our planet’s position. But the asteroid will be visible to the naked eye, the National Aeronautics Space Agency says.

The space rock was first spotted by the scientists in 2013. According to the researchers at the NASA’s Pasadena Laboratory of Jet Propulsion in California, the asteroid might get as close as 17,100 kilometers (11,000 miles) from Earth’s surface somewhere around March 5^th.

The distance sounds big, but the asteroid will actually come closer to our planet than most of our artificial communications satellites that orbit our planet. The distance is equivalent to the 20^th part of the distance between us and the Moon.

But you better brush up your telescope if you really want to see the 2013 TX68, because its trajectory is somewhat erratic and it could end flying by us from as far as 14 million kilometers (9 million miles) away. The good news is that all of the simulations predicted that the asteroid might venture off further, and there is no collision risk, whatsoever.

The manager from the office of Studies of Near-Earth Objects at NASA, Paul Chodas, says that the asteroid was visible in 2013 when it last approached Earth for as long as three days before passing into the daytime skies and losing its trace. For this year, he finds it hard to offer a prediction on where exactly people should look in order to see it.

The next time the 2013 TX68 will pass near our planet will be on the 28^th of September 2017, and NASA has calculated that there is one chance in 250 million of an impact between the asteroid and Earth. But it is very likely that future observances of the object will reduce the probabilities.

According to Chodas, the next three visits of the asteroid will pose no danger to our planet as its trajectory will avoid our position.

The last time when an asteroid actually impacted with Earth’s surface was in 2013. Then object was half the size of the 2013 TX68 and it landed in a remote Russian area, Chelyabinsk. Even though the area was largely unoccupied, the Russian authorities reported around 1000 injured individuals.

If the 2013 TX68 will ever hit us, the predictions are far worse than in the Chelyabinsk incident. The explosion could be twice as powerful, and the number of injured people would greatly depend on the area in which the asteroid falls.

So it seems we might actually have to call Bruce Willis after all.

Image source: www.flickr.com

Russia Is Targeting Asteroids

Big Asteroid Might Pass Near Earth

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