‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE SAVED BY HOLLYWOOD’
Author says collision with asteroid will be the end
AWELSH author has revealed how he believes the Earth would cope if we were on a collision course with a giant asteroid – and it’s not great news.
Jonathan Powell, the author of new book Cosmic Debris – a book that examines the mysterious debris that forms part of our universe such as comets, asteroids, and meteors – said that if an extinction-level asteroid were ever to hurtle towards us, it would be the end of civilisation as we know it.
“We know an awful lot about what’s floating around up there but there’s still an awful lot we don’t know and there could well be something with our name on it still heading our way and the book concludes with the ways of stopping a potential asteroid hit – but really the bottom line is we don’t have a chance.”
He added: “We’re not going to be saved by Hollywood on this one. There are numerous ideas from using a tracking device to push it off course to Hollywood’s favourite of firing something at it.
“There’s a lot flying around and we need to track it of course – and in Wales we’re lucky to have The Spaceguard Centre and Observatory in Knighton which is one of the big independent eyes on the sky.
“There’s a global network of satellites that are keeping a watch with Nasa at the forefront of these things, but the question is: how would they handle the situation if something was to come hurtling towards us?
“So we’re keeping an eye out, but should our name be on one of them we won’t be able to do much about it. There will be a lot more people who will know about it, as there are lots more people who are switched on to knowing what’s going on in the universe now, but the end result would probably be the same as how the dinosaurs saw it.”
The good news is that Jonathan believes that for the immediate future the end of civilisation is some way off yet – and he reckons it will be the sun that causes Earth’s demise.
“That’s the good news, there is nothing out there that is going to cause any undue worry.
“Personally speaking, I think people needn’t worry but it will be the sun that will cause our demise not an asteroid. The sun will naturally burn out its own fuel supply, it will engulf the earth and we will all go up in a giant ball of flame.
“But before then more than likely we would have moved on and colonised other planets. But I need to stress there’s no need for due alarm, the sun has plenty of energy left in it yet and I can safely say we should see Christmas in nicely this year,” he laughed.