Asteroid Impact On Earth Is Inevitable, Scientist Warns

Following Earth’s near-collision with an asteroid during the weekend, a scientist warned that an impact event is inevitable. Although it is not yet clear when it will occur, the scientist said that an asteroid hitting Earth will surely happen.

Earth had a close call with an asteroid last Saturday when a massive space rock approached the planet. Identified as 2006 QQ23, NASA indicated that the asteroid was about 1,870 feet long and traveled at a speed of 10,400 miles per hour.

As it flew past Earth, it approached the planet from a distance of 0.04977 astronomical units or around 4.6 million miles away.

Following the asteroid’s visit, Danica Remy, the current president of the asteroid-hunting non-profit organization B612 Foundation in California, said that an asteroid smashing into Earth is bound to happen.

“It’s 100 percent certain that we’re going to get hit, but it’s not 100 certain when,” Remy told NBC News.

Despite the certainty of an asteroid impact, Remy believes that Earth is not in danger of getting hit by planet-killer space rocks or those that are more than a kilometer in length. Due to their massive sizes, these asteroids can be easily identified and detected by space agencies. Based on their latest findings, Earth is currently not in danger of getting hit by one of these giant asteroids.

Although Earth is relatively safe from these massive space rocks, the same cannot be said for smaller asteroids. These have greater chances of hitting Earth since they are small enough to be easily affected by gravitational forces in space. This means they are more prone to getting nudged into a direct collision path with Earth.

Unlike the planet-killer asteroids, the destruction caused by an impact from a smaller one will be more localized. Despite this, Remy noted that the impact event can still have a larger effect on the rest of the world.

“The kind of devastation that we’d be looking at is more of a regional level than a planetary level,” Remy said. “But it’s still going to have a global impact, on transportation, networking, climate and weather.”