BEWARE! Huge asteroid larger than Pyramid likely to hit earth: Fear of human extinction

August 11: Social media has been flooded with reports of possible asteroid hits over the last few months. While the planet Earth has been proved lucky enough to survive all those previous calamities, another prediction made by a British scientist may send a chill down your spine. It’s only a matter of time before Earth is struck by a mega asteroid, the impact of which could be many times stronger than a nuclear bomb, according to a leading scientist.

Asteroid 2006 QQ23, a rogue space body much bigger than the Eiffel tower, narrowly missed its collision with the earth on Sunday. The asteroid, which was speeding at 10,400 miles per hour, passed within 4.6 million miles of earth and even a small change in its trajectory could have brought devastating effects on the planet. Had it struck the planet, the resulting explosion could have been 500 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

An asteroid, which is reportedly slightly larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza, is set to hurtle past Earth in August at a massive speed of 18 kilometres per second. The enormous asteroid, known as 2019 OU1, measures to 160 meters (524 feet) in diameter, the equivalent to the Washington Monument, or 20 meters bigger than Egypt’s most famous pyramid, according to Russia Today.

In a recent talk with the NBC News, Danica Remy, President of the California based B612 non-profit foundation, revealed that it is only a matter of time before earth gets hit by a mega asteroid. He added that the impact of such an asteroid hit will be several times stronger than a nuclear explosion. According to Dr Iain McDonald, a top scientist at the Cardiff University, Wales, our planet will ‘Inevitably’ get hit by a doomsday asteroid one day or the other. However, McDonald has not specified an exact date or time for the end of human civilization.

In order to combat these future threats, NASA is now busy developing a planetary defence weapon to protect the Earth from deep space threats. NASA’s planetary defence weapon aims to hit the approaching space body using a large craft so that the collision trajectory of the object can be changed.

Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “It is an intriguing and under-appreciated fact that asteroids and comets may have been the bringers of life, if not the ingredients of life, but perhaps even life itself. And yet, they can also serve as harbingers of doom for the very life that they brought to the planet.”