New research conducted by the University of Southampton has found that Great Britain is at great risk of facing a deadly asteroid tsunami which would very likely end the lives of hundreds upon thousands of people who have their homes in coastal regions.
The researchers designed a software program which has predicted the impact of the corridors of known asteroids and has calculated the risks that they would pose to various communities if they were to hit the surface of the Earth. While the UK does sit directly in the path of any asteroids, it is in danger of experiencing massive tsunamis caused by their landings in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
It is because of this that astronauts, scientists and rock stars have all joined forces for Asteroid Day (June 30) in order to raise awareness about the dangers associated with such an event and attempt to convince the powers that be to actively search for them so that life on planet Earth can be protected.
The day is not chosen arbitrarily. It goes all the way back to June 30, 1908, when a 40 meter asteroid entered our planet’s atmosphere at roughly 33.500 miles per hour and exploded mid-air over a forest region in Siberia. The event caused a catastrophe as the heat and shockwaves from the explosion leveled an area of the forest that was 2000 square kilometers.
There is a 100x declaration that asks the world to quickly accelerate the efforts being made to detect asteroids that are potentially dangerous for our planet, as well as those living on it. This years it gained two (2) new signatures, that of Lord Rees, astronomer royal, and that of Brian May, legendary guitarist of rock group Queen.
Other public figures who have signed the 100x declaration in the past include Eileen Collins, the first ever female commander of a Nasa space shuttle, Brian Cox, acclaimed actor, Peter Gabriel and Richard Dawkins.
Brian May gave a statement to the Guardian informing that “The aim is to ramp up public awareness and the awareness of governments to the fact that we are under threat from a meteor strike”.
He went on to add the issues has been made visible in the past, however it has also been treated lightly. While we may have seen some great movies where Bruce Willis saves the day, the threat is a very serious one and should be treated as such.
Using ground-based telescopes, space scientists have managed to learn that there are roughly a million space rocks that could someday hit the Earth, but they were only able to detect and track something like 10.000 of them, What this means is that no one has any idea when one of the other 99 percent (99%) asteroids could end up crashing into out planet.
Lord Rees gave a statement of his own, stressing that these asteroids are a threat to us and that for the first time we are able to do something in order to diminish the threat. He encourages the scientific community to conduct a survey of all the asteroids that have a diameter larger than 50 meters and a potential to hit the Earth’s surface, and catalog them.
Scientists agree that if asteroids were to hit, they would most likely crash into the ocean. Unfortunately this is the worse place for them to do that as they would produce tsunamis powerful enough to destroy entire cities.
Image Source: telegraph.co.uk
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