In recent weeks there have been several news stories about ‘potentially dangerous’ asteroids, solar flares and other events that could spell the end of the world.† However, it’s just some of the misinformation and alarming headlines.
A solar storm cannot wipe out life on Earth, and an asteroid of catastrophic size is not expected to hit us for the next 200 years. Even, it is scientifically more likely that humanity will end its own existence rather than an external event (or object)†
At BioBioChile we spoke with Teresa Panequeknown on social media for creating content to educate about astronomy and the mysteries of the cosmos.
Teresa Paneque, In addition to being an influencer, she is an astronomer, writer and science communicator. published book series The Universe According to Carlota (1 and 2) and graduated in astronomy and master in astronomy from the University of Chile. In addition, he is currently a PhD student in Astronomy at the European Southern Observatory in Germany and also at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
With her, We clarify some of the disturbing doubts it came after two weeks of media bombarding humanity with news about asteroids, the cycle of the sun and concepts that at first sight are alarming and remind us of the end of the world.
Is the end of the world scientifically possible?
“There is a small chance that something will happen, of course it is. We believe it is statistically possible that a planet-destroying event will occur between now and tomorrow, no‘ Paneque assured.
When we think about something scientifically, Tere says, all options and possibilities should be considered† It exposes the case of the evolution of the sun, the star at the center of our solar system, the largest source of electromagnetic radiation.
“In another 5 billion years, we know that our sun, a yellow star, will evolve. It will increase in size and it will grow into a red giant. At that time, the sun will be so large that it will reach the orbit of planet Earth and therefore destroy it.he explained.
However, and while that is the most real option for an ‘end of the world’, it’s not something that can be measured on human time scales† “I can’t tell you that this is going to happen in 5,141 million years and exactly at 3 in the afternoon, we don’t know,” the astronomer said.
“I would say this is the event that could destroy the planet, but Statistically, our planet is not going to be destroyed overnight. And today the truth is that there is no giant object of such size that can destroy our planet or affect us,” he added.
To this he added that “Our solar system is a stable planetary system” and that there are no collisions with other objects. “Talking about the destruction of the planet is a very powerful thing. I think people in general when they think about catastrophic events think that they will end human life and that could be possible.”
And it is that the end of the world is not the same as the end of human life as we know it. And while that can happen, it won’t happen overnight. †It is possible to change the conditions of the earth in such a way that it becomes uninhabitable for us‘ he clarified. “But the planet, the mass sphere orbiting the sun, will not be destroyed at all.”
Potentially Dangerous Asteroids
It was in the second half of April when the first notes on “potentially dangerous asteroids” were published. Objects the size of the Empire State that would pass “close” to Earth, announced by NASA.
And that’s real. NASA, like many international space agencies or research institutes, constantly monitors asteroids that could pose a risk to the planet.† However, what does it mean that an asteroid is potentially dangerous? And on the basis of which criteria do they obtain this characterization?
“Asteroids become potentially dangerous if they are large and close to Earth. Those are two conditions that must be met at the same time,” said the expert.
Objects considered dangerous are measured in ‘moon distances’† “The moon is 300,000 kilometers away and objects begin to appear in the table of near-Earth objects, if they are at least 5 lunar distances.”
This means that, for an object to be considered close, it would have to be at least 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. “They are objects that pass very far and in fact in the next 100/200 years there is no warning of a large object that will have a statistically significant percentage to affect the Earth,” he assured.
After knowing this data, it is clear that the probability of an impact that will mean the end of the world is too low. “We’re talking about less than 1% chance of hittingPaneque added.
solar flares
Other alarming news about the end of the world points to the sun In early April, some media outlets announced a dangerous solar storm called: cannibal solar flare†
Newspaper headlines read “Cannibal Solar Eruption Heads for Earth at over 3 million km/h”. However, this event was harmless and would only allow us to see a few Northern Lights in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Oregon. This was reported by DW on March 31†
“The sun has a magnetic cycle of about 11 years and no, the magnetic activity of the sun is not dangerous for the earthTere Paneque confirmed.
“We have not only an atmosphere, but also a magnetic field that protects us from the ejection of charged particles from the sun. That’s basically why we see the aurora australis or aurora borealis, because of the interaction of charged particles with our magnetic field,” he added.
What can happen is that during magnetic (solar) storms problems arise with satellite connections and communication. “That’s part of the problems satellites face when they orbit the Earth. And beyond this protection that our atmosphere and our magnetic field give us here on the surface.”
Is it possible that NASA is hiding information from us?
Tere Paneque pauses to note that, NASA is not the only space agency to provide us with valuable information about the universe. “There are many countries with space programs and many space agencies, not to mention there are hundreds of thousands of research institutes around the world,” he said.
And it is that the same problems that NASA is trying to solve from the US, they are also trying to solve in other countries. Such as the European Space Agency (ESA); the Russian State Space Company (Roscosmos); the Canadian Space Agency (CSA); the China National Space Administration (CNSA), among many others.
†Research institutes can withhold certain information for, for example, press conferences. When they announce big results,” says Paneque. In addition, it emphasizes that all scientific progress today is made in teams, not one or two people, but many involved.
We saw it even when the first real image of a black hole was presented to mankind, more than 200 scientists from all over the world took part in this project. This feat took them over 10 years, but they didn’t show it to us until 2019 and not a decade earlier, because it’s a work in progress.
“The feasibility of having a research agency, among the hundreds of thousands in the world, hiding a great secret is really not feasible, not a realistic scenario†
Will the world end tomorrow? #TereTeExplains
like my friend said @astronomamamilareceives outreach in astronomy many questions about the possibility of asteroid impacts ☄️💥 pic.twitter.com/C3xmNxS6bG
— Teresa Paneque Carreno💫 (@terepaneque) May 5, 2022
The real end of the world is climate change
From BioBioChile, we asked Tere Paneque: Which is more likely: an apocalypse from space or one from Earth?
†Absolutely, an apocalypse for us humans on Earth‘ the astronomer confirms. “What’s going to happen here is us humans screwing things up in such a way that climate change is making our planet uninhabitable.”
As Paneque said before, The only way to end life on Earth is to change the climatic conditions that make life as we need it to survive.† Such was the case with the dinosaurs.
“Finally a meteorite hit, a large cloud of dust came up and that affected the atmosphere and the living conditions of the dinosaurs. That’s why they died out, not at the moment of impact, but because of the subsequent consequences,” he assured.
He also emphasized the importance of the earth within our solar system. †Planet Earth is an oasis for life as we know it and for human life. An oasis that we as humanity are destroying, an oasis that is being destroyed by egoism and capitalism today.
In the same vein, she noted that she was surprised by the efforts and interest abroad. “I am very surprised by the tenacity with which we try to prepare, explore and protect ourselves from a universe that is just there. While we have to protect the habitability of our planet for us humans.”
It is important to point out that, if the planet became uninhabitable, life could reappear as it did after the extinction of the dinosaurs† This is because there are several organisms that are resistant to extreme conditions, they would not go extinct like humans.
“Other forms of life have emerged, we have emerged and I find that very fascinating on Earth. It has the chemical components for life to exist, and life continues, life arises,” Paneque said.
To end, reflected on human responsibility† “Unfortunately, we humans are very vulnerable and we also insist on ruining it. So don’t blame the cosmoswe have to blame ourselves and our decisions,” he added.