Aspiring stargazers are living in an exciting time, especially if they don’t have a telescope. On May 30th, Mars will be closer to Earth than it has in 11 years. Granted, by closer, NASA means 46.8 million miles away but compared to its usual position, it’s a large difference. While this is all in good fun for the time being, it brings up a scary possibility of colliding planets in the future.
MARS AND EARTH GET COZY
From May 30th to June 3rd, NASA says Mars will appear both bigger and brighter to us here on Earth. Neither a telescope nor binoculars will be needed to see the red planet as it moves closer that it has in 11 years. Even those who are not astronomically inclined will have an easier time picking it out. Around midnight eastern time, NASA says to look for the brightest object in the southeastern sky that seems to have a reddish tint to it. If one happens to miss this event, NASA calculates that Earth and Mars will be even closer next year on July 31, 2018. How close it too close, though?
NASA PREDICTS VIOLENT FUTURE FOR OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
Due to computer simulations, a theory has been revealed that disruptions of planetary orbits could lead to a collision of Earth with other planets such as Mars, Venus or Mercury in the coming years. The probability is low, however, even if a planet like Mars does not collide with Earth and collides with something else, the results could be disastrous. A change in a planet’s orbit like this could lead to total destabilization of the inner solar system in about 3.3. billion years. This could possibly trigger other collisions as well. Planets orbits may seem stable today, but they are far from it. NASA predicts this will only get worse over the years
WHEN WORLD’S COLLIDE
So what exactly happens when two worlds collide? If it happens in our lifetime, we probably won’t be able to do much observation. Thanks to the wonders of technology, we are able to roughly simulate what impact would look like. Judging by the video, it doesn’t look pretty. Well, it actually does look pretty in an aesthetic sense, but it’s safe to say population would cease to exist quite rapidly.
