Asteroids capable of destroying cities on Earth have the potential to slip through NASA satellites, giving humans just days to prepare. As a result, scientists at the ESA concerned about the threat to Europe are launching a new £915,000 telescope in the next week. Flyeye will be able to scan space and identify any possible objects heading to Earth, giving enough time to plan accordingly.
The ESA released their plans to the public in a no-nonsense video, which did not spare the niceties and dug straight into what would be a catastrophic situation.
The hypothetical simulation played-out a terrifying scenario, with an asteroid on course to strike Earth in 2028.
A newsreader says: “The top story today remains last week’s discovery of an asteroid as big as a city block that is heading to Earth.
“According to initial predictions, it’s forecast to hit somewhere between Tokyo and Copenhagen in just 24 days from now.
“Simulations indicate the impact will provide enough energy to destroy a city.
“10 kilometres from impact heat will ignite clothing a cause third-degree burns.
“The UN is again today meeting to determine of an evacuation should be ordered.”
The footage then showed the ensuring panic from scientists who are expecting the asteroid to hit Earth, due to the lack of apparent information.
One claims: “They are planning to move millions of people.
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It’s going to hit in the South Pacific, so no evacuation needed.”
The simulated scenario was presented by the ESA to emphasise the importance of their new asteroid tracking telescopes.
Up to four Flyeye Telescopes will be located worldwide.
Data will be sent to the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s Minor Planet Centre (USA), the world’s central clearing house for all asteroid sightings.
The telescopes are designed using a technique exploited by a fly’s compound eye, these bug-eyed telescopes split each image into 16 smaller sub-images, increasing the total amount of sky that can be observed and expanding the field of view.
“By placing one in the Northern and one in the Southern hemisphere, the entire sky will be scanned within 48 hours.
Simulations have shown that about four asteroids larger than 1 meter can be detected every year before they will impact on Earth
The ESA said: “As of March 2019, we knew of more than 600 000 asteroids in our Solar System.
“Of these, around 20,000 are near-Earth objects, 800 of which are in ESA’s risk list, meaning that they merit close follow-up observations.”
