Astronomers have issued an alert that Earth may be in the path of an impact from space rocks. The risk is higher than originally thought and the astronomers are keeping a watchful eye on the potential threat to Earth.
This surprise came to light Tuesday, according to Yahoo! News, after scientists’ three decades studies revealed that “cometary encounters were larely upredictable,” although “no risk is known to be imminent.” Their theory that a cometary hit could occur to Earth was uncovered in the last twenty years. It shows that hundreds of centaurs or giant comets have an increasing field of potential landings that includes Earth.
Up to that time, any potential threats were drawn to Earth’s neighbor’s Mars and Jupiter. However, in the last two decades, researchers discovered that the larger orbits created from dust and ice have a spanse of 31 to 62 miles or 50 to 100 kilometres and have proven to be elliptical orbits starting beyond Neptune. Where they may land is widely unpredictable.
Typically, they meet around the areas of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, “whose gravity fields occasionally deflect a comet towards Earth, once about every 40,000 to 100,000 years.” Travel closer to the Sun would mean a gradual break down of the comet and an impact “on our planet inevitable.” In an articles for the Royal Astronomical Society Journal, Astronomy and Geophysics, the scientists said the comets’ break up into Earth would be intermittent but have prolonged effects lasting up 100,000 years.
They conceded that although cometary encounters are not certain, much could possibly happen to change the Earth’s atmosphere, if a strike occurs, such as firestorms and other climatic conditions.