Uninvited?
By: Mary Anne Aclan Quizon
The News Daily ‘s newsfeed this morning greeted me with the lingering question: “Are we about to get smacked in the face by near-Earth asteroid TC4, due to pass between our planet and the moon in October?” The news further said that “there had been five asteroids close call this year, yet nobody saw it coming.”
We start wondering that if America can stop an enemy missile from entering its territory, then America or one of the big four as well could possibly stop an asteroid from dropping in uninvited. It was said that there has been studies by NASA on this field but to date no known planetary defense hardware has yet been developed. Bill Nye the internet science guy has however suggested the use of laser bees.
Asteroids are considered mini planets or planetoids as they orbit the sun. They are usually made of rocks and metals and unlike regular planets, asteroids are irregularly shaped. These little planets are referred to as asteroids due to their fast movements. It is said that there are millions of asteroids orbiting the sun which, however, never grew large enough to become a planet.
A great many people have heard about the Chelyabinsk incident, where an asteroid hit the Russian city in February 2013. Astronomers did not know of the asteroid’s coming until after it hit Chelyabinsk damaging houses and injuring about fifteen hundred people.
According to Wikipedia, there was another recorded incident that caused an explosion and created a peat bog in Tunguska , Siberia in 1908 but has injured no one as the place of explosion was uninhabited. The intruding meteor or asteroid dropped into Tunguska and knocked down about eighty million trees in an area of about 830 square miles . The incident was estimated to have an energy equivalent to 15 megatons of TNT or 1000 times that of the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima Japan during World War II. There were ancient huge craters some dating over 50,000 years old discovered in places around the world which according to investigations had been caused by either asteroids or meteors.
Nine Planets.org reported about 120 craters on record suspected to be caused by asteroid impact. A 180 km crater now buried below the jungle near Chicxulub in the Yucatan Peninsula was said to have been caused by the impact of an immense comet or asteroid that was also thought to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The asteroid scare could be overwhelming yet could just be another call for people to remember that there is Someone , somewhere who can change courses not only of the winds, storms or people but also of asteroids.
We remember the New Testament story when Jesus was awakened by his disciples in fear of a storm. Jesus calmed the storm and the apostles came to believe that He was the Son of God.