Asteroids, which in the future may approach the Earth at a distance equal to 7.5 million km, are considered potentially dangerous for the Earth. Our planet has more than once collided with these cosmic bodies. Today we will talk about how dangerous the fall of an asteroid to Earth is and is there a possibility of a large-scale catastrophe in the foreseeable future? Let's start with a little historical background.

An asteroid (from the Greek "star-like", "star") is also called a minor planet. It is a celestial body, the size of which exceeds 30 km. Some of them have their own satellites. Many asteroids travel through our solar system. 3.5 million years ago, a huge number of asteroids fell to Earth, which led to global changes.

Traces of an ancient asteroid

In the spring of 2016, in Australia, geologists discovered traces of the fall of an asteroid, the diameter of which was about 30-40 km. That is, in size it is commensurate with a small satellite. The fall caused an 11-magnitude earthquake, tsunami and massive destruction. It was probably one of the asteroids, as a result of which not only the beginnings of life were formed on the earth, but also the entire diversity of the biosphere was formed.

There is also an opinion that the mysterious disappearance of dinosaurs was due to the fall of a large asteroid to Earth. Although this is just one of many versions...

It is interesting! The ancient shock was formed as a result of a meeting with a meteorite. Its depth once reached 20 km. The fall of the meteorite caused a tsunami and climate change similar to nuclear winter. In addition, for up to 16 years on Earth, the temperature could drop by 26 degrees.

Chelyabinsk meteorite

The fall of an asteroid to Earth in February 2013 has become one of the most discussed incidents not only in Russia, but throughout the world. The asteroid, whose mass reached 16 tons, partially burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, but a relatively small part of it fell near Chelyabinsk, fortunately flying over it.

In that year, he flew over the Ural city, which served as the basis for his name. The body itself turned out to be quite ordinary and consisted of chondrites, but the time and place of its fall aroused interest. None of the asteroids that fell to Earth did such damage, since they did not fall in such close proximity to a densely populated area. The mass of the meteorite was 6 tons. Falling into the lake caused broken glass in 7,000 buildings. 112 people were hospitalized with burns, several more people turned to doctors for help. In total, the shock wave covered 6.5 thousand square meters.

The huge damage caused by the asteroid could have been much more significant if the heavenly stone had fallen not into the water, but onto land. Fortunately, the fall of the asteroid to earth did not turn into a large-scale catastrophe.

How dangerous is the fall of a large meteorite to Earth?

According to the calculations of scientists, the fall of an asteroid to Earth can lead to huge damage if a body about 1 km in size falls on the Earth's land. First of all, a funnel with a diameter of about 15 km is formed, this will cause dust to enter the atmosphere. And this, in turn, can lead to large-scale fires. Dust, heated by the sun, will reduce ozone levels, speed up chemical reactions in the stratosphere, and reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the planet.

Thus, the consequences of an asteroid falling to Earth are very serious. The global temperature of the Earth will fall by 8 0 C, causing an ice age. But in order to cause the extinction of mankind, the asteroid must be 10 times larger.

Giant danger

Recently, scientists have found that centaurs should be included in the list of potential threats to our planet - these are giant asteroids with a diameter of 50 to 100 km. The gravitational field of other planets every 40-100 thousand years throws them towards our Earth. Their number has now increased dramatically. Is it possible for a giant asteroid to fall to Earth in the near future, scientists are constantly calculating, although calculating the trajectory of the fall of centaurs is a very difficult task.

In addition, the list of potential threats to the Earth includes:

• supervolcanic eruption;
• global pandemic;
• asteroid impact (in 0.00013%);
• nuclear war;
• ecological catastrophy.

Will an asteroid hit Earth in October 2017?

The main issue that currently worries scientists is the danger posed by an asteroid, the size of which is 2 times larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite. There is a possibility that an event will occur in October 2017 that will cause a much larger scale of disaster than the impact in 2013. Astronomer Judith Rees claims that the diameter of the asteroid reaches 40 km. It was dubbed object WF9.

A dangerous celestial body was discovered by scientists in Hawaii back in 2012. That year, it passed at a very close distance from the Earth, and on October 12, 2017, it will approach the most dangerous distance for our planet. Scientists believe that if the fall of the asteroid to Earth really takes place, then the British will be the first to see it.

At the moment, scientists are actively studying the possibility of a collision. True, the probability of an asteroid falling to Earth is very small and, according to researchers, is 1 in a million. However, it is still there.

Constant danger

It should be noted that certain asteroids of various sizes constantly fly past the Earth. They are potentially dangerous, but very rarely actually fall to Earth. So, at the end of 2016, a body flew past the Earth at a distance of 2/3 of the distance from a small truck.

And January 2017 was marked by the passage of a celestial body reaching the size of a 10-story building. He flew within 180 thousand km from us.

The Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell on February 12, 1947 at 10.38 am near the village of Beitsukhe in the Ussuri taiga, in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in the Far East. Shattered in the atmosphere, it fell like iron rain over an area of ​​35 square meters. km. The meteorite left behind more than a hundred craters with a diameter of up to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 m and a lot of debris. The total mass of the precipitated matter, according to astronomers, was about 70 tons, 27 tons were collected - more than 3,500 fragments.

The largest of them weighs 1745 kg.

The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is one of the ten largest meteorites in the world. Now samples of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite are presented in all more or less large museums in the world.

Soviet astronomer Nikolai Divari described the fall as follows: “At the very beginning, the fireball was seen as a relatively small rocky body moving rapidly across the sky at some angle to the horizon. The size and brightness of this asterisk increased until a critical moment in its movement came: the asterisk flashed with a blindingly bright light, scattered into pieces and, leaving a fiery tail behind it, continued to rapidly approach the earth's surface. At this stage, the fall of the fireball was a breathtaking picture that is extremely rare for a person to observe. Describing a large arc across the sky, a fireball flew, scattering golden sparks around and all the time crushing in the air. With sounds similar to artillery fire, fragments of the meteorite hit the ground, causing a small earthquake.

Windows rattled in the apartments, glass fell out, plaster fell, snow fell from the roofs of houses.

The trail left by the flying meteorite in the sky finally dissipated only in the evening.

The meteorite was thoroughly investigated due to the large amount of material. The analysis showed that it consisted of 94% iron, 5.5% nickel, 0.38% cobalt. The remaining constituents are carbon, chlorine, phosphorus and sulfur. As the Soviet astronomer Vasily Fesenkov noted, the meteorite was not a monolith, but consisted of many arbitrarily oriented crystals, "poorly interconnected." This, probably, served as its disintegration into many parts.

The meteorite was assigned to the chemical group II B An, which includes 2.7% of iron meteorites.

According to Fesenkov's calculations, the celestial body came from the central part of the asteroid belt and weighed about 100 tons upon entry into the atmosphere.

The rough structure indicates that it was formed during the crystallization of a liquid melt of iron, nickel and cobalt in the complete absence of oxygen. Given the size of the meteorite, this process should have taken about a million years.

The search for the place where the meteorite fell began the very next day. Two planes circled the taiga, but could not find anything. Later, a group of schoolchildren from a neighboring village, led by a teacher, set out to search, but after skiing several tens of kilometers through the forest, they also found nothing.

The pilots of the Far Eastern Geological Administration were the first to discover the place where the meteorite fell.

On February 15, they, returning to their airfield, noticed a large dark area against the backdrop of a snowy forest.

In April, an expedition of ten people led by Fesenkov arrived at the crash site. The task of the expedition was to study the crash site and collect all the parts of the meteorite. The fragments, covered with a layer of clay, outwardly differed little from rock fragments, so a mine detector had to be used.

One of the large fragments generally lay right on the road, and they walked on it every day without noticing.

Some fragments were stuck in tree trunks, others were able to pierce trunks with a diameter of half a meter. Fragment samples of a spiral shape allowed Fesenkov to conclude that at the time of the fall, the temperature of the meteorite mass was about 300 ° C.

Over the following years, another 15 expeditions were made to the place where the meteorite fell, each consisting of about 30 people. The scattering contour of the meteorite fragments was outlined, their distribution over the area was established, and the craters were described in detail. In 1983 and 1987, teams of specialists headed by an astronomer went there. By that time, the village of Beitsukhe had already been renamed Meteoritny, two streams in the fall area became Bolshoy and Small Meteoritny. The area itself was declared a natural monument.

In 1957, postage stamps with the image of a meteorite were issued.

They were created on the basis of a painting by the artist, who, at the time of the appearance of the meteorite, painted the local landscape and captured on it a passing celestial body.

Every year, scientists scare the world with another assumption of a natural disaster. And today, astronomers report that a large asteroid is flying towards the Earth. It is already known that the space body will pass at a dangerously close distance from our planet, and many experts even predict a collision.

It should be clarified that while scientists do not sound the alarm, and all the data are presented in the form of approximate calculations, but still cosmic bodies are not subject to man, and anything can be expected.

So, let's still discuss what can happen if an asteroid falls to Earth in 2017, what destruction and cataclysms await all of humanity. Are there any predictions of famous clairvoyants about the fall of a meteorite in the near future. Let us also recall past cases of the fall of celestial bodies to Earth.

The end of the world is predicted

Recall that one of the most famous seers, Matrona of Moscow, clearly saw the end of the world before her death. She said that 2017 is a dangerous year, it was during this period that the soothsayer saw that thousands of people would die without wars, that a celestial body would fly from space that would wipe almost all of humanity from the face of the Earth.

In her last words, Matrona bequeathed prayer to people, she insisted that the people pray, since the end of the world is very close, and only prayer can save the soul. The saint saw how much grief humanity would have to endure. According to her visions, in February, earthly life will come to an end: many people will die, the dead will lie on the ground, and in the morning everything will go underground. What the great soothsayer had in mind is still unknown, perhaps she saw that a meteorite should fall on the planet.

However, what do scientists say about the alleged catastrophe, confirm or refute the version of the clairvoyant?

Specialist calculations

According to experts, January and February 2017 will be rich in various astronomical phenomena. In particular, scientists suggest that in February of this year, Encke's comet will show its “tail” in all its glory.

The last time astronomy lovers managed to observe the large tail of this celestial body was in 2013.

Whether Encke will “fluff up” its tail this time is unknown, but scientists say that when approaching a close distance from the Sun, the comet will begin to warm up, as a result of which its tail becomes larger and brighter. Experts hope that the 2017 comet will surprise everyone with its beauty and get closer to the Earth so that it can be seen with the naked eye.

However, most of all experts are concerned about the date of February 10, 2017, on this day, according to astronomers, there will be a dangerous approach of our planet with the large asteroid Phaethon. Scientists have long been watching how this huge cosmic body is approaching the Earth; Phaeton itself was discovered back in 1983. During the study of the asteroid, scientists were able to get ahead of its size. As it turned out, its diameter is about 5.1 km, and its rotation period is 3.6 hours. The flying object attracted scientists with its atypical orbit for asteroids, the fact is that Phaethon belongs to the Apollo group, but it can approach the Sun at a record close distance - about 21 million kilometers.

Experts believe that such a trajectory is more typical for comets, and perhaps the asteroid is nothing more than the nucleus of a comet that has lost its tail.

Phaeton crosses the orbits of 4 planets of the solar system, and it is on February 10, 2017 that it will come as close as possible to the Earth. Some scientists believe that nothing threatens our planet, but some skeptics think that an asteroid can fall on the blue planet.

Let's hope that no disasters will happen, and astronomy lovers will simply watch with pleasure the next space object. Indeed, in the event of its fall, the scale of the tragedy is incommensurable. After all, one should not forget how much destruction the tiny Chelyabinsk meteorite did, which, before burning in the layers of the atmosphere, had a size of only 17 meters.

At the same time, many inhabitants of the Earth are worried that if experts have already watched the fall of a meteorite in Chelyabinsk, then they may not see an even larger object from space, which can cause enormous destruction.

Space guests

Note that in the entire history of mankind, quite a few cases of the fall of celestial bodies have been recorded, let's recall the most famous of them.

Goba. This is one of the oldest and largest meteorites that fell to Earth before our era on the territory of modern Namibia. For thousands of years, a giant block was buried under the earth, so the cosmic body was discovered only in 1920. According to scientists, at the time of the fall, the object weighed about 90 tons, but during its stay on our planet, its weight decreased to 60 tons. In addition, each of the tourists is trying to take with them at least a small part of this giant, so Goba begins to gradually “melt”.

Tunguska meteorite. In June 1908, residents observed a huge flaming ball, at an altitude of 10 km from the ground, the ball exploded, the force of the explosion was so powerful that it was recorded by instruments around the world. The power of the explosion was comparable to the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, and mankind was simply lucky that the meteorite was destined to fly past the uninhabited part of the Yenisei River basin. Before entering the planet's atmosphere, the weight of a space object could reach 1 million tons. During the fall, the meteorite wiped out several kilometers of territory, all the trees were felled within a radius of 2 thousand kilometers, and absolutely all the windows were knocked out in hundreds of kilometers near the house. Animals and people were destroyed by an incredibly powerful blast wave within a radius of 40 kilometers. And a few days after the fall of the cosmic body, the sky and clouds shone with an unusual color. However, the main mystery is that such a giant did not leave a large crater from itself, as happens when such a huge object falls from space.

Sikhote-Alin meteorite, Far East. In 1947, a huge celestial object fell into the territory of the Far East in the form of a meteor shower, which, as a result of entering the earth's atmosphere, broke into many pieces. The area of ​​scattering of meteorite fragments exceeded 10 square kilometers, and the objects left on the ground more than 30 craters with a diameter of 7 to 30 meters. Then scientists managed to collect about 27 tons of fragments of a celestial body.

Meteorite Sterlitamak. A giant object weighing 315 kg fell in the vicinity of the city of Sterlitamak in 1990, as a result of the fall, a funnel with a diameter of more than 10 meters was formed.

Chelyabinsk meteorite. Perhaps this is the most popular space object at the present time, which fell to Earth on February 15, 2013, its flight was recorded by several cameras. A powerful blast wave in three hundred houses knocked out all the windows, injured more than one and a half thousand people. The weight of the largest fragment found by scientists was more than 500 kg, this object became one of the largest space bodies that fell on our planet.

According to scientists, the first to see the fall of a space object called WF9 are residents of the UK. The asteroid was discovered back in November 2016, but reports of the threat have appeared only now.

ON THIS TOPIC

An object with a diameter of 500 meters to a kilometer should reach the Earth on February 25, reports the Daily Mail. The giant was from us at a distance of 51 million kilometers.

Astronomer Damir Demin claims that if an asteroid falls to Earth, coastal cities will be covered by giant tsunamis. The expert is sure that he will fall on our planet, according to the online publication M24. According to him, WF9 flew out of the Nibiru system. According to doomsday theories, Nibiru will destroy life on Earth.

However, not all astronomers share the pessimistic sentiments of their colleagues. Anatoly Zaitsev, general director of the non-profit partnership "Center for Planetary Defense", claims that if the object is significant, scientists immediately calculate its trajectory.

“And if he really threatened, then not only NASA would know about him. Therefore, so far the information is very doubtful in order to draw any conclusions,” Nation News quotes a specialist. There are a number of his colleagues who are sure that the asteroid will simply burn up in the atmosphere of our planet and will not harm anyone.