Look Up, Again: An Asteroid is Really Coming

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s version of the Chicxulub crater at the time of the meteorite’s impact. (NASA)

Yes, you have heard it all before – a “planet killer” asteroid is coming our way. Well, in this case it appears to be true, but the 1.1km to 2.3km asteroid will only cross our path rather than hit us, at least for now.

The asteroid, named the ever-boring 2022 AP7, is among the top 5 percent of the potentially hazardous asteroids ever found.’

Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science, and one of the authors of a recent paper on 2022 AP7, stated in The Guardian:

Any asteroid over 1km in size is considered a planet killer…The Earth’s surface would likely cool significantly from sunlight not getting to the planet. It would be a mass extinction event like hasn’t been seen on Earth in millions of years.

Fortunately, we should have a few centuries to watch this asteroid before we start worrying about a collision.

Let’s hope we have a Super DART spacecraft sweeping the solar system by then keeping us clear from this asteroid and any other.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.