Killer Asteroid?

In the afternoon of February 15, 2013, an asteroid will pass very close to Earth.  It will be closer to Earth than the Moon.  It will travel so close, it has the potential to knock out some communications satellites.   

It's called Asteroid 2012 D14, and was discovered a year ago by an observer in Spain.  

If it were to hit Earth, it would be at a force equivalent to 2.7 megatons of TNT.  How strong is that?  By comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima unleashed a force of 0.2 megatons.

Here's NBC's take.

What is so freaky to contemplate is that there are hundreds, nay thousands, nay MILLIONS of asteroids zipping around our Milky Way Galaxy.  It is as if we are sitting ducks in a cosmic shooting gallery.  Quack!  Quack!  Look at the moon and the impact craters that are obvious there. Our own solar system is littered with huge chunks of rock that are unseen until they start approaching Earth.    

A thought which turns a lot of people to God is, "WE COULD BE KILLED AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT!!"   The universe is so random, so ... "uncaring" that planetary destruction could become a reality at any time.  Trippy! 

This past December 12, 2012, Asteroid Toutatis, a 1.5 mile-wide planet killer passed within 4.3 million miles of Earth.   If that had hit Earth, it could have destroyed all life.  It wasn't noticed till 1989.

The day before that on December 11, 2012, Asteroid 2012 XE54 passed within 143,000 miles of Earth.  It was only 32 meters wide, but carried a 1 megaton force.  

So, what would happen if 2012 D14 were to hit Earth?  Well, "most" scientists think that it WON'T hit Earth, but if it did...

from Original Scientist

All three of these asteroids are registered as "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" (PHA.) Fortunately Toutatis is the biggest one of these three asteroids which can wipe out life on Earth, and it remains far away. Asteroids earn PHA classification by a combination of Earth-crossing orbit, a certain size and velocity. All these characteristics combine together can enable a PHA to destroy a continent or even the entire Earth. Fortunately, 2012 DA14 and 2012 XE54 are not large enough to cause global or continental damage.

For larger asteroids, water impact simulations show an ocean impact will cause massive tsunamis towering a mile high or even more. Some computer models have shown that two massive tsunamis can be generated upon impact with an ocean and travel outward in opposite directions. These giant waves, which have never been seen in the history of the world can circle the globe. Eventually they will collide with each other on the opposite side of the Earth. There they will reverse direction and returning back to the asteroid point of impact and collide again. It is hard to comprehend short term and long term effects this would have on most of the world's major cities which are located on coastal areas.

A ground impact will be far worse. Scientists have modeled a ground-impacting asteroid. This type of impact will have far more devastating effects on life. Millions of tons of dirt and dust will be blasted into the upper atmosphere. There it will continue to circle the Earth for months, blocking out most of the Sun's light for up to one year. Trees and crops will die after three days if there is insufficient sunlight for photosynthesis.

Anyone who survives the effects of a large mile wide (or larger) asteroid strike will soon turn feral. A domestic house will turn feral when kept outside for just two weeks. People will resort to robbery, killing and cannibalism in a very short time after all the food is gone. When a plane crashed high in the Andes mountains many years ago, it was cannibalism of those who died which kept remaining passengers alive through the winter. Even though these people knew that eventually they would be rescued when spring came, the pain of starvation and accompanying symptoms was too much for anyone to endure. Now imagine the survival mentality an asteroid strike will create in everyone - seeing civilization as we know it wiped out, no food, electricity, running water, medicine, doctors, hospitals, etc... ever again. Even a simple injury could become infected and life threatening.

When trees and plants have died they cannot be replaced. Even if there were trillions of seeds or seedlings ready to re-plant the Earth, there would not be enough sunlight or oxygen to germinate the new plants and these would also die. Atmospheric CO2 levels for those that survive will rapidly rise without trees to recycle CO2 into oxygen around the world every day. Forget about global warming - all life on Earth will suffocate without oxygen-recycling by trees and plants.

Wasn't all that uplifting? Gives you a new appreciation for the modern life we have today. Hopefully 2012 DA14 will pass by and nothing serious will happen to dozens of complex, hard-to-replace, expensive communication satellites which have become the backbone of our civilization.

And of course a sizeable minority would claim that the asteroid was God's punishment of mankind for all of being so wicked.  I have come to the realization that they only way "God" will be eliminated from Earth will be when humanity is eliminated from the Earth.  

And that might just come in a flash of light; in the blink of an eye.  So ... enjoy!!

Here's a fun little video