Move To Mars To Avoid Extinction-Causing Asteroids, Scientist Suggests

A scientist warned that moving to Mars could be the only way for humans to survive cosmic threats that can cause mass extinctions on Earth. Right now, one of the biggest threats facing the planet is a massive asteroid strike.

For years, scientists have warned about the looming threat posed by various cosmic dangers on Earth. Some of these include high-energy solar storms and the inevitable death of the Sun. But since the former can be prevented using technological advancements and the latter is not expected to happen for at least seven billion years, the most pressing concern right now is a major impact event caused by an asteroid.

According to NASA, asteroids that are similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs and over 70% of life on Earth appear about once every few million years. Since the last time an asteroid strike of this magnitude happened around 66 million years ago, it seems a major impact event could happen anytime soon.

For Dr. Weronika Sliwa of the Copernicus Science Center Planetarium in Poland, escaping an impact event similar to the one that killed off the dinosaurs would require drastic solutions. According to the scientist, the only way for humans to avoid extinction would be to colonize another planet.

“It’s not good that humans only live on one planet,” he said according to Express. “There’s a saying that you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Our planet is in danger from various catastrophes and phenomena that could unexpectedly appear on its surface.”

“It would be better if humanity slowly stars to think about settling [in] other bodies in the Solar System and perhaps later – farther.”

Right now, the most viable planet to colonize in the Solar System is Mars. With NASA and even SpaceX planning their own expeditions to the Red Planet, Silwa noted that humans should take advantage of Earth’s progressing technological capability to start moving to a new planet.

“It seems at this very moment that the technological capability is here for such a manned journey to Mars to take place,” he said.