Elon Musk sparks asteroid apocalypse panic after warning Earth has ‘no defence’ from deadly space rocks
ELON Musk has sparked fears that Earth would not be able to defend itself against giant asteroids with one of his recent tweets.
The billionaire made the chilling comment in response to a story shared by his friend about Nasa's preparation for an incoming monster space rock named after an Egyptian god of chaos.
The monster asteroid, named Apophis, is not expected to come near Earth until 2029 but it should come so close that billions of people will be able to see it with the naked eye.
Musk's friend Joe Rogan shared an article about this huge asteroid and Musk replied: "Great name! Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually & we currently have no defence."
Luckily for us, Apophis should skim past Earth within 19,000 miles of the surface.
However, this is technically a hair's breadth in space terms.
This rare close approach of a gigantic space rock should be a good opportunity for Nasa to observe it in detail so that's why preparation is starting early.
If it was to hit a city like London, Apophis would wipe out millions of people and create a crater about three miles wide.
In 2013, Nasa ruled out Apophis hitting Earth.
The space agency does keep an eye on lots of other potentially hazardous space rocks though.
Musk's rather concerning tweet has already received thousands of retweets and a lot of jokes about the Bruce Willis film Armageddon.
One user : ";We need to develop a new technology to prevent this..."
Another : "I am forever grateful that you retweeted this and that NASA is finally getting their s**t together on this topic.
"Not only are we vulnerable but this will help space funding as well."
Asteroids that come very close to Earth are fairly common and Nasa has previously revealed that a car sized asteroids hit's the Earth's atmosphere at least once a year but burns up before reaching the ground.
A lot of asteroids are hard to spot because they can be in blind spots created by the Sun.
An asteroid called 2006 QV89 could actually crash into Earth in September this year and could flatten an area bigger than London.
The asteroid is currently travelling at 27,400 miles per hour but scientists think it is has a one in 7,299 chance of hitting Earth.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
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In other space news, diamonds as old as the Moon are being blasted to Earth’s surface by a ‘hidden lava reservoir’.
A lost planet in Solar System was gobbled up by Jupiter.
And, here's a full list of the asteroids that could crash into Earth.
Do you think Elon Musk has a good point? Let us know in the comments...
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