A world-leading defence expert has issued an ominous warning that we should "start looking for a new home," after it was claimed a huge asteroid will hit Earth with the force of 22 atomic bombs in the next 150 years.
Ealier this week, scientists revealed the exact day an asteroid could smash into the Earth's surface. The space rock, named Bennu, passes by our planet every six years, but boffins reckon we could be on course for collision with the asteroid on September 24, 2182.
While the potential doomsday date is a long way off, NASA is already working hard to divert Bennu and are in the "final leg" of the mission, with samples from it set to land in a desert in Utah, United States, on Sunday. But if efforts to stop it hitting us fail, then Professor Anthony Glees has one simple solution for us all . . . and one big warning for scientists.
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Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, he said: “The idea of trying to blast Bennu with nuclear weapons (as in 'Armageddon') is very, very dangerous. It could radiate the earth, literally burn it up, or like the H-bomb tests, cause the earth to wobble, depart from its axis round the sun, even stop it moving all together.
“The second thing already being done is to scope out new planets which humans could colonise before September 24, 2182.I've been struck by what NASA has reported about the TOI-700 star system and K2-18b, a so-called Hycean star system which can support life perfectly.”
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For the uninitiated, TOI-700 is a red dwarf, 101.4 light years away from Earth and is the first Earth-sized exoplanet in a habitable zone, Nasa claims. And K2-18b is another exoplanet, but this one is 124 light years away from Earth.
However, if the only plan our scientists have is to try to nuke the asteroid, then Professor Glees has called on two of the world's most controversial people to lead the way in dong so.
“The obvious people to ask about this would be Elon Musk and Kim Jong Un, two rocketmen who specialise in making rockets,” he said. “Both could do something useful for mankind.
“Musk in particular might like the idea of turning Bennu into a kind of super-Tesla that could steer itself into oblivion, instead of causing car crashes in California."
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The samples of the potentially killer asteroid are currently on their way to Earth should help researchers shed some light on the concerning rock, with the fragments set to be fired towards Earth from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in a fridge-sized capsule. The vessel is carrying an estimated 250g of rocky material collected from Bennu's surface in 2020.
The capsule is due to enter Earth's atmosphere at around 8.42am local time (3.42pm BST) on September 24, whizzing towards the surface of the planet at nearly 28,000mph. It is also expected to reach temperatures double that of lava.
Before it makes impact, however, parachutes will be sent to slow it down to just 11mph, allowing the capsule to land safely at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. Nicola Fox, associate administrator of Nasa’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said: "Pristine material from asteroid Bennu will help shed light on the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago and perhaps even on how life on Earth began."
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