NASA, the American space agency is now busy developing a planetary defence weapon to protect earth from threats from space that includes rogue space bodies like asteroids and meteorites. Even though the space agency is all set to test this weapon soon, SpaceX founder Elon Musk believes that humans are not capable enough to defend themselves from possible asteroid hits that may happen in the near future.
Elon Musk made these remarks when one of his followers asked whether asteroid Apophis, also known as the 'God of Chaos' will hit the earth in 2029. The South African billionaire suggested that earth will be hit by a doomsday asteroid one day or the other, but humans currently have no defence to protect the planet from a catastrophic hit.
A few days ago, it has been reported that NASA is preparing to combat a possible hit that may happen when an asteroid dubbed 99942 Apophis will pass within just 19,000 miles of earth's surface. It should be noted that most of the human-sent satellites used for communication are orbiting 36,000 miles away from the earth's surface, and it indicates that asteroid Apophis will be passing through such a dangerous zone.
As per the initial analysis, the asteroid is currently traveling at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour, and experts believe that this giant space rock may attain more speed during its close flyby. If a hit happens, it could trigger devastation on a global level, and earth will be pulled to a state of chaos within a few seconds.
Experts believe that there are various factors that may increase the possibilities of the earth being hit by this killer asteroid, and one such factor is the crucial gravitational keyhole. As per space scientists, a gravitational keyhole is an area in space where rogue bodies like asteroids get affected by the gravitational pull of nearby planets. If an asteroid passes through this keyhole, then the possibilities of an impact will be increased dramatically.
A few months back, Dr Iain McDonald, a researcher at the Cardiff University's school of earth and ocean sciences had revealed that earth will surely face catastrophe due to a doomsday asteroid hit. As per McDonald, devastating asteroid hits have happened in the past, and it will repeat in the future too.
