The Moment We’ve All Waited For: Mile Long Asteroid Could Finally End Humanity On Earth

We can only imagine how much the Dow Jones Industrial Average would rally on news of the end of humanity. Thankfully we won’t be around to witness it. 

In upbeat news today, there’s a mile long asteroid floating around out that that experts say could finally end life on Earth.

The asteroid was linked to a one inch meteor that streaked a fireball through the sky of Japan three years ago and could eventually threaten humanity if it breaks up. The catch: it would likely happen millions of years from now, according to Fox News. 

 

Toshihiro Kasuga, a visiting scientist at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and Kyoto Sangyo University, said in a release Wednesday: “The potential breakup of the rock could be dangerous to life on Earth. Those resulting asteroids could hit the Earth in the next 10 million years or so.”

The fireball that was seen over Kyoto in April 2017 was a one inch meteor that broke off of the asteroid, scientists later determined. 

(2019/10/20) Fireball That Flew Over Japan in 2017 Was Tiny Piece of Giant Asteroid that Might One Day Threaten Earth | Live Science https://t.co/RP0YcC2UAy

In the early morning of April 28, 2017, a small fireball crept across the sky over Kyoto, Japan.

2003 YT1 pic.twitter.com/2hEHPxLJ4n
— matiere* (@matiere) October 23, 2019

Kasuga said: “We uncovered the fireball’s true identity. The 2017 fireball and its parent asteroid gave us a behind-the-scenes look at meteors.”

The asteroid is known as 2003 YT1, and according to scientists is made up of two parts: “the larger rock measures 1.2 miles and is orbited by a 690-foot piece.”

 

“The parent body 2003 YT1 could break up and those resulting asteroids could hit the Earth in the next 10 million years or so, especially because 2003 YT1 has a dust production mechanism,” Kasuga concluded. 

The asteroid was first discovered in 2003 and has a history of “cracking and releasing dust particles into space”.