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Should we fear the asteroid?
27/07/2002 12:56 - (SA)
Waldimar Pelser, Die Burger
Cape Town - An asteroid as big as a medium-sized Karoo town is hurtling at high speed on a course that will see it pass the earth. Nuclear weapons, like those from a Hollywood movie, may one day be needed to save humanity from such a fiery death from space.
Those who believe such plans are limited to the likes of Robert Duvall and Ben Affleck in the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon, should think again.
Experts said on Friday asteroid 2002 NT7, with a diameter of nearly 4km, should miss our planet by quite a margin on February 1, 2019. But in the US and at the United Nations, serious measures are being taken to enable us to aim nuclear weapons at space in future.
Modern telescopes enable scientists to spot dangerous space bodies which might collide with the earth. Thus the US government has ordered an investigation into the possibility of destroying asteroids with nuclear missiles in 1991.
Maybe magnets?
The US Spaceguard programme was first ordered to track as many asteroids as possible. Since most meteorites and asteroids contain a lot of iron, it has even been suggested that these flying rocks be bounced away from earth with giant magnets.
In 1999, the UN recommended that the world should unite against an attack from space and employ nuclear devices.
Laser beams have also been suggested.
And still an asteroid as big as a soccer field narrowly missed the earth by just more than 120 000km a mere month ago.
Should we have sleepless nights over 2002 NT7?
Not at all, astronomers told Die Burger.
'Won't make waves'
Although a collision with NT7 would wreak havoc on earth, possibly wipe out a continent and bring about giant waves that would flood islands all over the world, we need not panic yet, Professor Brian Warner, head of the astronomy department at the University of Cape Town, says.
"The asteroid will pass close by earth - about 200 000km - but it will probably not even exert an influence on oceanic tides on earth."
On Thursday, stargazers were warned to watch NT7 closely. But by Friday, the risk of a collision was drastically reduced after more calculations, Dr Stephen Potter of the South African Observatory says.
"On Saturday the risk is negative. Sometimes asteroids pass the earth four or five times a year and each night we see shooting stars, meteors burning out as they enter the earth's atmosphere.
"But I don't think there is any cause for concern. At least not in the next couple of million years?"
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- Die Burger
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