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As we all know, the beginning of the rise of mankind on the earth will start from 65 million years ago when a former asteroid hits the earth.
But as the saying goes, "Success is Xiao He, failure is Xiao He." In the future, will the Earth encounter a similar impact event again, and will we repeat the mistakes of dinosaurs?
Xicthulub meteorite impact incident
The earth is in the habitable zone of the solar system, so such a brilliant life was born. However, the Sun, as the star's main sequence star, has entered the second half.
According to scientists' speculation, the sun is expanding at an accelerated rate. It is expected that in the next 1.7-3.5 billion years, the earth will move out of the habitable zone of the solar system and enter a hot zone where life cannot survive.
However, before this distant deadline comes, there are not many crises under the earth. Looking back on previous mass extinctions of organisms, you will find that the first four times were due to changes in the energy and ecological environment of the earth, and the organisms on earth were reshuffled.
But the fifth time is very different, it is caused by an "accident" when an asteroid hits the earth.
About 65 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 10-15 kilometers hit the Yucatan Peninsula in the north of Mexico at a speed of nearly 70 kilometers per second. The moment the meteorite fell, it released 5.0×10^23 joules of energy. It is analogy to the first nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima . The scene is equivalent to the power of billions of explosions at the same time. The huge impact force of
directly triggered geological disasters such as huge waves of tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The smoke rising after the meteorite landed and the volcanic ash from the volcano erupted soared into the sky, "covering" the earth in the atmosphere for several years, directly or indirectly causing more than 3/4 of the species on the earth to become extinct.
This time the Mecthulub meteorite impact incident marked the end of the Cretaceous Era on Earth, and dinosaurs died.
To this day, many scientists are still studying that prehistoric disaster.
Some scholars believe that the impact may have accelerated and triggered the eruption of other volcanic systems on the earth at that time. Some scholars also determined the time when the meteorite fell to Earth based on the investigation of the fossils of fish remains that died after the impact, which should be the spring of the northern hemisphere. Although tens of millions of years have passed, it is still of reference for us to study global climate change today and further understand the huge threat posed by asteroid impacts to life on Earth and humanity.
will help us determine in advance the possibility of upcoming extinction risks and ecological deterioration patterns.
, especially the impact event itself, scientists collected rocks composed of carbonaceous chondrite in crater , but this substance is more common in long-term comet .
This discovery triggered speculation about the origin of the asteroid of Hecthulub.
In the solar system, small celestial bodies that orbit the sun like planets and generally have a diameter of no more than 100 kilometers. They are called asteroids. Most of them come from the Kuiper belt between Jupiter and Mars , and there are 1.27 million asteroids.
is formed in the solar system, so asteroids are different from comets and contain very little interstellar residual material. So some scientists believe that Xicthulub may be from the outer edge of the solar system, with about 100 billion comets, and , the Alt Cloud, .
Through these explorations, we can't help but worry whether that asteroid will come again, causing life on Earth to encounter extinction events similar to the dinosaur era. So, who might be the next one?
next one may be who
beautiful Leo or Perseid meteor shower , often bursting periodically.So, will the asteroids hitting the earth come periodically?
According to statistics, scientists have discovered more than 27,000 near-Earth asteroids so far, of which more than 700 near-Earth asteroids are threatening to the earth. And it is said that giant asteroids as big as dinosaurs may hit the earth every 500 million years.
In fact, any celestial body hits the earth, or a meteor in the sky crosses the earth's atmosphere, will cause violent combustion or even explosion and shatter.
, but only the remaining parts that fall to the earth and are not burned are called "meteorite" or "meteorite". Celestial bodies that have not yet fallen to the earth in the sky are generally called asteroids or cosmic fragments, meteors, etc.
and these asteroids that can enter the earth often run at a speed of 30 kilometers to 70 kilometers per second, which is extremely dangerous.
In 2019, a cold-swept, near-Earth asteroid flight incident occurred. A football field-sized asteroid known as the "City Killer" passed us 45,000 miles from Earth.
There is still 2021, an asteroid the size of a 747 aircraft approaches the earth with lightning speed. We didn't find it until about a day! Fortunately, it did not cause much damage.
However, in 2013, the "Chlyyabinsk region explosion" incident occurred in Russia was not so lucky.
At that time, the Russian military had actually predicted that an asteroid with a diameter of about 20 meters would explode in the atmosphere 32 kilometers above Chelyabinsk, Russia.
However, due to its incorrect judgment, this asteroid will not cause any threat after burning through the atmosphere, so there is no early warning. As a result, when it landed, the explosion of TNT equivalent was equivalent to 450,000 tons, causing nearly 1,200 casualties!
In the future, in 2029, a near-Earth asteroid , named " Destroy the God Star ", is about to arrive, which has also made scientists from all over the world nervous to a certain extent. They hold computers and predict the time and power of their fall on the earth.
It is speculated that the "Destroyed God Star" may fall from the Earth's surface at a distance of about 58,000 kilometers apart. By then, all countries will take precautions for this in advance to prevent it from posing a huge danger to humanity.
Of course, there are many model simulations, and the result is that "Destroyed Star" will turn perfectly or brake suddenly. The probability of hitting the earth is not high. But no matter what, we must be vigilant, because any "swept" will be a catastrophic incident of regional destruction!
However, Unfortunately, not all celestial bodies can be completely detected, and there is still a possibility of "flying the net". How should humans deal with it?
How should humans deal with
What kind of asteroids deserve our high attention, and what can humans do to deal with asteroid impacts?
As of 2018, among the 1.27 million asteroids discovered by humans, there are more than 250,000 permanently numbered, and more than 12,700 have been officially named. Even nearly 680,000 have not been officially named. So whether it is located between Mars and Jupiter, there are more than 100,000 asteroids in , asteroid belt, .
is also the outer edge of the solar system, and there are tens of thousands of unfathomable comets of the Alt nebula. The number of asteroids and comets among them is really unpredictable. It is said that scientists can discover new asteroid trajectories every day.
But why has the earth been safe for so many years? Its achievements mainly lie in the moon not far away from us, and the giant gas planet - Jupiter.
In the solar system, Jupiter's mass is second only to the sun. It "resolutely" blocks the front of the earth and uses gravity to resist most of the impacts of asteroids for us.
Our lovely moon also resides beside the earth and resolves all the fish that have escaped the net one by one.
The craters on the surface of the moon are the best proof. Without them, the earth would have long been unrecognizable and full of holes. However, many unknown asteroids in the solar system do not play completely according to common sense. This requires us to be prepared in advance.
conventional operation is that if scientists observe and discover an asteroid that exceeds a certain amount and enters one-twentieth of the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, that is, within a range of 7.48 million kilometers from the Earth, the object will be automatically locked as a "potentially dangerous asteroid."
requires scientists to screen a large amount of data through long-term observations to estimate the threat value and navigation status of near-Earth asteroids to a certain extent, as well as the time, location and power of the expected fall.
All countries will strictly prevent and prepare for this in case it poses a huge danger to human beings.
With the advancement of scientific observation technology, several asteroids will pass by the earth in recent years. Human beings have attached great importance to the harm of asteroid impacts. I hope that at that time, I can predict it longer in advance, in case I suddenly discover it when it is very close, which will lead to the inability to avoid it at all.
If you can detect it early, calculate the location of its fall, evacuate the people in advance, and reduce some disaster consequences, this is the greatest luck. However, it will take some time to completely avoid disasters and losses from asteroid impacts.
