We would have died the Dinosaurs’ death, had there been not a little luck on our side. Okay, here’s what happened.
Couple of weeks back our home planet managed to duck an asteroid which, in case of a collision, would have reduced to us to ashes.
Apparently, the miss was pretty fortunate as the asteroid would have a triggered an explosion tantamount to that of three billion atomic bombs. The impact would have recurred a dinosaur extinction scenario all over again.
Experts claim that a collision of similar nature wiped out the dinosaur population from the face of the planet.
Image courtesy: NASA
According to reports, China’s Purple Mountain Laboratory that first identified the asteroid. Reportedly on September 5th, the asteroid was as close as 18.8 times the distance between the Earth and the moon, (4,491,320 miles).
Though it may sound to be pretty huge figure, in the field of space science, the distance is dangerously close.
The asteroid called 2009ES, by the way, is only one in a group of 1600 ‘minor bodies’ and if it were to collide with earth, the energy released would be equal in comparison to three billion atomic bombs.
It was indeed a close shave as an asteroid can change its path in case another planet’s gravity affects its orbit.
Yes. It means, our planet just managed to scrape through in precluding a mega-disaster.
