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SHREEYEH RAJAN

opinion@technewsiit.com

   

TechNews | Tuesday, October30, 2012

Apocalypse feasible, not imminent

By Shreeyeh Rajan
OPINION EDITOR

Is the world going end on Deceme
ber 21st 2012? Should I stop making plans
for my birthday? You’re probably thinking
why write an article about this when Google
gets you around 1,980,000,000 results. I
wanted to know whether or not this was sci,
entifically true, so I attended Dr. Phil Plait’s
lecture “Death from the Skies!” Would we
all die because of
an asteroid hit,
ting planet Earth? \
Dr.Plait explained
how even though
there have been in,
cidents where aster,
oids have damaged
the planet before,
NASA scientists
have come up with
an innovative plan
to stop asteroids
from colliding with
the Earth. Before,
every scientist,
physicist, and as,
tronomer thought
of different ways to
break the asteroid
into pieces before it
touched the planet.
But realizing that
it’s far too dane
gerous and risky,
NASA scientists
have come up with
a better plan called
the “Gravity Tug.”
In simple words,
the plan is to move
the direction of the
asteroid’s path with
the help of a rocket,
thus missing the
keyhole. What’s a
keyhole? Wikipedia
states that, “A gravie
tational keyhole is a
tiny region of space
where a planet’s
gravity would alter
the orbit of a pass,
ing asteroid such
that the asteroid
would collide with
that planet on a
given future orbital
pass.” For example,
the asteroid named
99942 Apophis has
a small probability of striking Earth in 2029.
But if it passes through the gravitational
keyhole, we may be able to escape it in the
shorteterm. But studies show that it may
strike Earth in 2036.

What about comets? Where do
we get more information about this? Well,
according to Dr.Plait, never search for in,
formation about astronomy in Hollywood!

-.

 

In a very amusing way, he spoke about the
scientific inaccuracies featured in a 1998
science fiction movie named Armageddon.
For instance, in the film, the NASA direce
tor claims that the asteroid, which was the
size of Texas, was “knocked out of the aster,
oid belt by a comet.” First of all, the biggest
asteroid named Ceres ever found was 900

 

in: scum:

5‘1""

Image courtesy ofportlanddaveknowsorg

kilometers wide. And Texas is 1400 kilomee
ters wide. So, it’s not even closely accurate.
Second of all, a comet just can’t kick an as,
teroid out of an orbit! Dr.Plait clarified how
it would take years for an asteroid of radius
500 kilometers to be broken up by a comet.
Third of all, there’s a very slim chance of a
comet actually hitting an asteroid. So, it isn’t
a good idea to base your thoughts on any

film, especially the film 2012.

To sum up what Dr.Plait said, even
though there have been numerous scary
astronomic events occurring through the
centuries, NASA have come up with better
space programs to combat any external ob,
ject impacting our planet Earth.

Now for the popular asked ques
tion, will the world
end in 2012? Why do
the Mayans say that
the world is going to
end on December
21st 2012? According
to NASA, the Mayans
calendar doesn’t con,
tinue after December
21st like how our calf
endar doesn’t
tinue after December
31st. But just how our
calendar starts a new
year after December
31st, the Mayans calf
endar does after Dee
cember 21st.

So, if the world
really isn’t going to
end in 2012, then who
came up with this
threat? Recollecting
the answer that NASA
answered for the ques
tion ”What is the orie
gin of the prediction
that the world will
end in 2012?” NASA
replied, “The story
started with claims
that Nibiru, a sup,
posed planet discove
ered by the Sumerie
ans, is headed toward
Earth. This catastroe
phe was initially pre
dicted for May 2003,
but when nothing
happened the doomse
day date was moved
forward to December
2012. Then these two
fables were linked to
the end of one of the
cycles in the ancient
Mayan calendar at the
winter solstice in 2012
~ hence the predicted
doomsday date of De,

cember 21, 2012.”

I guess there isn’t much to worry
about now. We can all carry on with our
family, jobs, education, relationships and so
on. No necessity to start writing up a bucket
list for the year 2012. So, to summarize this
whole article, I’d like to point out a sentence
that Dr.Plait wrote in his book Death from
the Skies], “Most of the Universe is lethal, but
our little section of it is pretty cozy.”

COIl’

Images courtesy ofomszedu & “sued“