There are some sayings on the Internet that the earth is far more dangerous than imagined. Is it true? Is it true that the night on July 16, 1994, that all mankind was almost "destroyed"? What's going on? If there is really a threat on Earth, who is secretly protecting the Earth?
The earth was almost destroyed in 1994?
Speaking of 1994, many friends may think of Comet Summerk-Levi Nine . There are countless asteroids, comets, in the solar system. Most asteroids and comets are not named, and not many comets or asteroids are being paid attention to by humans. The reason why Comet Samuik-Levi 9, the comet, has attracted much attention because Comet Samuik-Levi 9 collided with Jupiter in 1994. This collision happened to be observed by astronomers. This is the first time in human history that I have seen the celestial body impacting event in the solar system. In addition, the comet collided with Jupiter with great power, leaving huge scars on the surface of Jupiter, which is very shocking. It is also because this comet collided with Jupiter and was witnessed by humans, so many people think that it may be Jupiter protecting our earth in secret.
This comet was actually not very long from being discovered by humans to hit Jupiter. On March 24, 1993, astronomers discovered this comet. Then, according to the rules of international star naming, it was named according to the surnames of the three astronomers who discovered this comet, and was named Comet Summerk-Levi 9. According to data obtained by astronomers, the comet was "teared" by Jupiter's powerful tidal forces as early as July 8, 1992 and split into 21 pieces of fragments. In other words, the comet was already near Jupiter before it was discovered. Then, starting on the evening of July 16, 1994, these 21 pieces began to fall into Jupiter one after another, hitting Jupiter's southern hemisphere. This process was just discovered by astronomers and shocked the whole world.
These comets are essentially some "residues" in the early stages of the formation of the solar system. They are not explosive items themselves. They are logically "harmless for humans and animals". However, because the mass of these celestial bodies is too large, and their flying speed is extremely fast, the kinetic energy at the moment of impact is quite amazing, which can be said to be devastating. Especially in the process of falling to giants such as Jupiter and the Sun, the powerful gravity of Jupiter and the Sun will also provide these small celestial bodies with a huge acceleration, making their speed faster and faster, and the energy during impact will become larger and larger. For example, the speed of Comet Sumeric-Levi 9 that hit Jupiter fell was as high as 210,000 kilometers per second. The current mainstream view is that an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hit the earth 65 million years ago, causing a series of disasters on the earth, which eventually triggered a large-scale extinction event, and countless creatures, including dinosaurs, disappeared.
These small fragments that hit Jupiter one after another, leaving huge traces on the surface of Jupiter. Among them, the most powerful fragment G left a scar on the surface of Jupiter even longer than the diameter of the earth, with a power of up to 6 trillion tons of TNT explosives, which is equivalent to 750 times the total reserves of nuclear weapons in the world. The power of just one fragment is so amazing. You should know that the nuclear weapons currently mastered by humans are enough to destroy human civilization many times, and the power of this fragment G is hundreds of times the total equivalent of a nuclear weapon. If the power of 21 fragments is included, it is actually a breeze to destroy humans if they hit the earth instead of Jupiter.
Of course, Comet Sumerk-Levi 9 just collided with Jupiter hundreds of millions of kilometers away from the earth. Although its power is amazing, it does not pose a threat to the earth and humans. After all, it is too far away, so the saying that does not exist that humans almost destroyed the night of July 16, 1994 is . However, this comet collided with Jupiter tells us that although threats from the universe are rare, once asteroids or comets collide with the earth, it may be devastating.
30,000 near-Earth asteroids have been discovered
From the perspective of probability theory, collisions between asteroids, comets and huge planets such as Earth and Jupiter are a matter of probability. Although the probability is very small, over time, collisions may occur. In fact, scientists have discovered that there are still many asteroids near the Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) said that astronomers have now discovered 30,039 near-Earth asteroids in the solar system.
In fact, there are far more than 30,000 asteroids in the solar system. There are many asteroids that have not been discovered by humans. Some asteroids have been discovered, but they are far away from the earth and pose little threat to the earth and humans, so they have not received much attention. When the orbit of an asteroid enters the range of about 1.3 astronomical units from the sun, it will be regarded as " near-Earth asteroid ". These near-Earth asteroids orbit around the sun like the eight major planets , but their trajectories are relatively close to the orbit of the earth, and their distance to our earth is within 0.3 astronomical units, that is, within a range of 45 million kilometers. Although there are many asteroids, scientists believe that these asteroids are currently not threatening to the earth, and that no asteroid may collide with the earth within at least 100 years.
From the perspective of distance, these asteroids are still relatively far away from the earth, but from the perspective of the universe, the distance between asteroids and the earth seems to be relatively close. Scientists have been paying attention to the operation of these asteroids, hoping to master their flight trajectories, ensure that they can detect asteroids that pose a potential threat to the earth as soon as possible, and destroy them before the asteroids collide with the earth, or deviate their orbits, thereby achieving the goal of protecting the earth and protecting humans.
From the trend of technological development, humans' ability to defend against asteroids will become stronger and stronger. At present, we have not only the ability to discover asteroids, track asteroids, and calculate the orbits of asteroids, but we have even the ability to change the orbits of asteroids. Last month, a NASA probe hit the asteroid Dimorphos, successfully changing the trajectory of the asteroid, reducing its orbit by 32 minutes. Of course, this is just an experiment and technical verification of asteroid defense technology, and it is still a certain distance from the real asteroid defense. However, with the advancement of technology, asteroid defense technology will become more advanced, more mature and reliable, and the threat of asteroids and comets to humans will be minimized.
