State View: We must take asteroid threat to Earth seriously.
Not that many politicians, members of the media or people will care, but June 30 is Asteroid Day. It’s a day created to wave the red flag regarding the evergrowing threat of an asteroid impacting the planet Earth.
In July comes a somewhat silly series from CBS titled “Salvation,” in which a politically correct, approved group of ultraignorant but incredibly goodlooking millennials have six months to save Earth from an asteroid impact.
While the series may be frivolous, it also will serve a purpose in once again waving that red flag.
An asteroid impact with Earth is a growing possibility that almost no one is taking seriously.
Just this past weekend, a 750-foot-wide asteroid (2010 — NY65) whizzed past Earth just close enough to remind anyone who cares of the imminent danger these potential planet-killers pose.
And two months ago, another asteroid approximately 2,000 feet across came within about 1 million miles of Earth.
One million miles. So what’s the big deal?
The big deal is first, the orbit of many of these asteroids — which make regular passes around the Earth — can be very erratic and highly unpredictable. Second, these two asteroids were large enough to be detected — not that we could have done anything to stop them if they had been on a collision course with Earth.
Much more worrisome are the asteroids that we can’t detect. Asteroids 50 to a few hundred feet across. One of which, just recently came — totally undetected — within about 9,000 miles of Earth. As close to a direct hit as it gets.
With these now regular threats in mind, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have been warning that humanity must get at least a representation of itself permanently off the planet to ensure the survival of our species.
Said Professor Hawking in part: “I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster … I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go to space.” SpaceX founder Musk punctuated that desperate wake-up call by adding: “One path is we stay on Earth forever and then there will be some eventual extinction event.”
Hawking, who specifically singled out asteroids as a major threat to our existence, and Musk could not be more correct. Their warnings should not only be applauded, but heeded.
Human nature dictates that we tend to embrace the truth right up until the moment it reflects poorly upon us or our cause. In this particular case, a truth that many politicians will deny is that they tend to ignore issues that are not tangible and instant vote-getters. Well, what is more tangible than potentially losing a city, a state, a region or the world to an asteroid impact?
To understand the threat, it’s best to know what damage can be done by even a “small” asteroid.
On June 30, 1908, a relatively small asteroid exploded over Siberia and leveled everything for more than 800 square miles. NASA estimates that its destructive force was the equivalent of “185 Hiroshima bombs.”
If we do accept that this threat is not only real but growing, the question then becomes, what can be done to protect us?
First, we must instantly put more time, energy and money into asteroid detection. Congress has asked NASA to locate all asteroids 450 feet or larger by 2020. That’s a start, but what about those asteroids between 50 and 400 feet — asteroids that could easily destroy a city or a region upon impact? There are thousands of them out there with orbits that do intersect the orbit of Earth.
Knowing that, what can we realistically do if we identify a “planet killer” on the way toward Earth?
As of now — to the everlasting shame of our world leaders — absolutely nothing.
Precisely because of that truth, Hawking and Musk stress that we need to get all of our eggs out of one basket, meaning before the worst happens, we need to get at least a significant representation of humankind permanently off the planet.
The moon would be a logical first step.
Worried about jobs, immigration, terrorism, health care, special elections, education or what’s going to happen next on your favorite reality show?
An asteroid hit would erase all those worries and quite possibly all of us.
We need to take this threat seriously — now.