Article | What is a real threat, Asteroids or Climate Change? | Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh | Central Chronicle

Article | What is a real threat, Asteroids or Climate Change? | Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh | Central Chronicle 

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Article

What is a real threat, Asteroids or Climate Change?

-    Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh*l

Writer, Author & Social Activist

Blogger - "Climate Diary Of Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh"

   China has taken a big step to protect the earth. Although the pain of the corona virus pandemic which originated from Wuhan, has not yet been erased from the heart of the world. Yet China's move to save the earth from asteroids can be appreciated. But the matter of thinking is that who is big threat for our earth in an asteroid and climate change? China and other nations also trying to slow down the pace of climate change but us? And how far have our efforts reached?

Our Earth is always at risk from asteroids. Yes, on 18 August 2022, the Earth narrowly survived the collision of an asteroid. A 190 feet wide asteroid named Asteroid 2022 PC, nearly the size of a Boeing 747 airplane, just missed Earth in 18 August 2022 at around 05:37AM, according to NASA. It passed by Earth at a safe distance. This asteroid was missed by the space and sky monitoring agencies and was just recently discovered on August 1. Asteroid 2022 PC is different from previous asteroids that have flown past Earth recently as it does not belong to the Apollo group of asteroids but the Aten group. The asteroid orbits around the Sun, taking almost 295 days to complete 1 orbit. 

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets. There are lots of asteroids in our solar system. In 1801, while making a star map, Giuseppe Piazzi accidentally discovered a small object 1000 kilometers (600 miles) in diameter between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Piazzi named the object Ceres. It was the first asteroid to be discovered. But for the word "asteroid" credit goes to scientist Herschel. This word derived from a Greek word meaning "star like". Herschel introduced the term at a meeting of London's Royal Society in May 1802 and later published it in the Society's Philosophical Transactions. Asteroids probably consist of clay and silicate rocks, and are dark in appearance. They are among the most ancient objects in the solar system. The S-types ("stony") are made up of silicate materials and nickel-iron. The M-types are metallic (nickel-iron). The fact is that every asteroid has not harmful for earth. Every year, the earth is hit by about 6100 meteors large enough to reach the ground, or about 17 every day, research has revealed. While it is believed that our solar system is very big compared to the size of the Earth, which means that the chance that the Earth will be hit by another solar system object such as an asteroid is very small. Once in awhile, it happens. In another theory an asteroid comet caused the Triassic–Jurassic extinction, similar to the extraterrestrial object which was the main factor in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction about 66 million years ago. It means that about 66 million years ago, a "planet killer" - a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid - hit Earth. The Chicxulub impact caused a mass extinction on a planetary scale, killing off an estimated 76 percent of all species living on Earth at the time, including the dinosaurs.

Chinese researchers are working on a new method to detect and track asteroids, which will also determine if any giant piece of space rock poses any danger to Earth. The method involves building an array of more than 20 large antennas to bounce signals off asteroids to determine if they could possibly impact our planet. The project is named China Fuyan ("compound eye" in English) and is led by Beijing Institute of Technology, according to the Chinese ministry. The asteroids chosen for signal bouncing will be present within 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) of Earth (about as distant as the Sun), it further said. Asteroids are harmless space rocks that give us something to stare at when they pass by Earth. However, if they slightly deviate from their angle while approaching Earth, it could often mean deadly for us. After all, a large asteroid had done that almost 65 million years ago to wipe dinosaurs out of this planet. But what if humanity has to face such an extinction event in the future? Chinese scientists have proposed a way to use the Moon to protect us from these deadly space rocks. 

Surely this is an important work towards saving the earth. But the earth is threatened not only from outside but also from inner side. And this threat is climate change. The only difference between the collision of a large asteroid and the devastation caused by climate change is to shoot dead someone or kill someone with slow poison. Death is in both. We are giving slow poison to the entire climate by harming our environment. Many countries, including China, are seriously working to reduce the pace of climate change. It's sad that we do less work and show off more. Every season of rain reveals the reality of our efforts. Till now we have neither been able to manage dirty water nor clean water. We have not been able to pay attention to our habits which harm the environment. Have we completely stopped using non-standard polythene bags? No! Have we stopped growing fruits and vegetables by putting chemical medicines? No! Have we stopped the cutting of trees? No! With so much negativity, how can we say we are aware of climate change? In fact, climate change is a bigger threat to us than asteroids and we have to take responsibility for serious efforts to slowdown it.

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 (21.08.2022)

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