Some scientists say that an asteroid is going to hit the earth 30 years from now. Is this true? Can we protect ourselves by sending nuclear weapons into space to destroy the asteroid? How big does a comet/asteroid have to be in order to destroy the Earth? What's the biggest a comet/asteroid could be and still burn up in our atmosphere?
There has been talk that the asteroid 1997XF11 will crash into the Earth in the year 2028. This asteroid poses no threat to the planet Earth in the next century. But, it will pass by the Earth over and over again in the next centuries, so it is worth knowing what we could do if it ever gets too close!
Right now, we have the technology to blow up a comet or asteroid coming towards the Earth. We would need some advanced notice (10 years would be a nice minimum notice). If we were to discover an object coming towards the Earth with only 1-2 years notice before impact, our technologies might not be good enough. So the best plan right now is to continue searching for Near Earth Objects so that we will know where these asteroids and comets are.
An object that's about the length of an American football field could make it through the atmosphere. Bodies longer than 5 football fields would certainly come through the atmosphere and would cause global disaster. The only thing we can compare such an impact to is that of nuclear war. Fortunately, impacts by such large bodies are extremely rare.
Submitted by Amber (age 14, Fargo, North Dakota, USA)
Submitted by Ann (age 19, Toronto, Canada)
Submitted by Phillip (age 13, Ottawa, Canada)
Submitted by Sam (age 11, Aaland Islands, Finland)
(June 29, 1998)
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