(Thumbnail image: NASA)
“Russia’s space agency is preparing to face the threat of a distant asteroid called Apophis. At more than 300 meters across, it may be capable of causing widespread destruction on earth.” (Russia Today)
Armageddon in the year 2036? As Russia prepares to divert an asteroid it says might be headed toward Earth, the plan is being met with part ridicule—part caution.
We’re looking at perspectives from Russia Today, WCCO, Crunch Gear, the Scientific American, and Fox News.
According to NASA, the asteroid is about the size of 2½ football fields.
Russia Today and the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis take decidedly different stances on the asteroid's likelihood to collide with Earth.
Russia Today: “The Russian space agency hit a bull's eye with this one, because of all the asteroids out there this one has worried people for the last five, six years, since it was discovered in 2004. It is a threat. I wouldn’t sell the house yet, but it is a threat.”
WCCO: “The news had me rethinking my priorities in 2010. I mean if we’re all going to be dead. Then I realized the good doctor might not have read the science. The actual chance that Apophis will hit earth is about one in 233,000.”
Others are poking fun at Russia’s warnings with tongue-in-cheek headlines.
From Crunchgear, “Mother Russia plans to save us all from killer asteroid”
Scientific American headlines, “Russian space chief makes vague threat to vaguely threatening asteroid”
FOX News brings us an analyst with a historical perspective.
“In 1908, a much smaller asteroid, probably something about 200 or 300 feet across, hit the atmosphere over Siberia and exploded in the air. It flattened 1,000 square miles of forest. If it had landed about 500 miles to the west, it would have wiped out St. Petersburg.”
Just how the Russians will go about diverting the asteroid is largely a mystery. The Russian space agency is keeping its plan under wraps for now, but says it will share the plan with the United States and China once it’s finalized.
So what do you think? Is Apophis a real threat?
Writer: Newsy Staff
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