Washington: A gigantic asteroid hurtling through space is feared to be one of the biggest ever to threaten a collision with Earth. It is estimated to be measured almost a mile across and will graze earth than previous asteroids, which had sparked a global panic.
Worried astronomers warned 1999 FN53, which is an eighth of the size of Mount Everest, will skim the Earth in two days. A collision would be nothing short of catastrophic triggering mass destruction, earthquakes and global extinction. The asteroid is more than ten times bigger than other meteorites currently visible on Nasa’s Near Earth Object radar.
It is also double the size of the gargantuan 2014-YB35, which had astronomers around the world watching the skies in March. Experts warn a collision would trigger an explosion similar to millions of megatons of TNT and would be capable of killing 1.5 billion people. It would be far more destructive than the 1908 Tunguska Event, which saw a 50-metre lump of extraterrestrial rock crash into Siberia.
It flattened around 80 million trees and sent a shock wave across Russia measuring five on the Richter scale. The event is held by scientists as a benchmark for the catastrophic consequence of an asteroid impact with earth. The gigantic lump of rock is travelling faster than 30,000 mph and will brush terrifyingly close to earth on Thursday, reported express.co.uk.
Bill Napier, professor of astronomy at the University of Buckinghamshire, said an impact would leave unimaginable destruction. He said: “People are concerned about an impact from a very large asteroid, and the impact of something of this scale would be nothing short of global. “It is certainly one of the biggest on the radar, and much bigger than the Tunguska asteroid which was one of the most significant in history. This is in a completely different ball park, we are talking about millions of megatons of energy, vastly more than was released in Hiroshima,” Prof. Napier said.
“It would undoubtedly lead to the deaths of around 1.5 billion people, we are looking at a mass extinction of humanity. To understand the impact of something on this scale, you would have to look to the science fiction writers, it is incomprehensible,” he said. The asteroid is currently hurtling around the Earth fifty times faster than a jumbo jet and double the speed of a space rocket.
Though several million miles away astronomers fear a slight deviation from its orbit will put it on a headlong collision course with the planet. Prof. Napier said: “All being well this one is far enough away not to do us any harm, but people are concerned because you just don’t know.”
