The last thing you need right now is for a comet to punctuate life on earth. This is understandable. But if you’ve ever watched Don’t Look Up, the second most popular movie on the platform that premiered on Netflix, it won’t be easy to get that thought out of your head.
A comet ending life on Earth is a popular Hollywood scenario, but scientists say it could turn into a real-life story that people need to be prepared for.
So are we ready for it?
“Asteroids that punctuate life on planets hit the Earth every 50 million years. The last one was 65 million years ago. So it was delayed by the next 15 million years,” Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, told the BBC.
“We should stay calm and not panic,” says Grady. That’s the job of people like him.
Comets and asteroids orbit the Sun. Comets are made of ice and dust. Asteroids are real rocks.
prof. “Like all satire, Don’t Look Up contains a lot of truth. It’s very possible, even certain, that a comet will collide with Earth,” says Grady.
“If we’re lucky, we’ll have years to prepare for it, but it may not be. It could be an inbound, out-of-orbit, interstellar object, or it might set off from outside the Sun.”
This is bad news.
But there’s also good news: Work continues to minimize the chance of a major collision.
‘Our greatest hope’
In November, a spacecraft conducted a test launch for technology that could be used in the event of a dangerous asteroid collision.
The American National Space and Aviation Administration’s (NASA) experiments to change the orbit of asteroids continue.
On the bright side, this isn’t really a plan to save Earth, it’s just an experiment. But if it’s successful, it might work in the future.
prof. “If we could deflect an asteroid a little from its orbit, it could bypass Earth from miles away,” says Grady. “That’s the best hope for now.”
Grady, who says that other methods are still being researched, states that painting one side white and the other side dark black is one of them. The white part will reflect the Sun’s rays, while the dark part will trap it inside, so that its rotation and motion will change, pushing it away from Earth.
Those who watched Armageddon and Deep Impact will also remember the idea of trying to detonate a bomb to destroy an asteroid or comet.
‘warning sign’
prof. Although Grandy says, “This kind of movies is actually a warning sign. It brings the problem to people’s minds,” he says that he is sure that the US President will take responsibility in the face of such a situation, as events will not develop as in Don’t Look Up. He adds that such a situation in real life will be evaluated at an international level, and that all countries will work together with space stations.
He also states that scientists are constantly preparing reports about new asteroids and that NASA is working closely with the United Nations. grandy. In his own words, “There is no need to panic yet, although the threat is great”:
“This is not the message to store toilet paper and pasta in the house. If there is a problem, there will be signals and everything will be done before we panic. Still, we must continue the investigation”.