UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

The asteroid known as 1990 MU is currently completing another orbit of the Sun, and in 2027 it could come perilously close to Earth. Asteroid 1990 MU is between 4-9 kilometres in diameter and on June 6 2027, it is set to come within 0.03 AU - astronomical unit. One AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, so coming within just 0.03 AU is perilously close.

For reference, Mars – the planet which humans are hoping to reach – is around 0.5 AU.

The asteroid is classed as a potentially hazardous asteroid, which according to NASA has the “potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth.”

According to data from NASA, 2019 OK was large – an estimated 187 to 427 ft (57 to 130) wide – and hurtling fast along a path bringing it within only 45,000 miles (73,000km) of Earth when it flew by in recent weeks.

This was less than one-fifth of the distance to the Moon and what the Royal Institution of Australia’s Professor Alan Duffy described as “uncomfortably close.”

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Asteroid warning: Space rock comparable to dinosaur killer is heading Earth’s way

(Image: GETTY)

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An asteroid strike 66 million years ago put an end to the dinosaurs

(Image: GETTY)

That asteroid would have been big enough to wipe out a city, so 1990 MU could be truly devastating.

Asteroid 1990 MU is up to nine kilometres in diameter, which puts it in the same ball-park as the space rock which put an end to the dinosaurs.

That space rock is believed to have been between 10-15 kilometres wide and came crashing into what is now Mexico 66 million years ago marking the beginning of the end of the dinosaurs.

Research from the University of Glasgow has found up to three quarters of life on Earth was wiped out from the asteroid, with the dinosaurs dying out within a few centuries.

READ MORE: Asteroid danger: Could HUGE space rock hit Earth this year?

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The orbit of 1990 MU on July 7 2027

(Image: NASA)

The space rock caused a cloud of dust to fill the air which blocked out the sun, leading to drastic and sudden climate change that ultimately created major food shortages across Earth, leading to the death of bigger animals, and allowing smaller creatures, such as mammals, to thrive in their absence.

Now, a comparable asteroid is heading Earth’s way.

While the asteroid will be close within the next decade, it will be even closer in 2058, when it comes within 0.02 AU - less than three million kilometres.

Scientists estimate that a life-ending asteroid, such as the one which put an end to the dinosaur’s reign, would collide with Earth every 100 million years or so.

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ASTEROID

The hunt for asteroids

(Image: ESA)

But asteroids can strike at any moment and there is always a very slim chance a massive civilisation-ending space rock could hit sooner.

For that reason, many claim global authorities should have a plan in place – but it seems they do not.

NASA employee Robert Frost, who works as an instructor and flight controller for the space agency according to his bio on Q+A website Quora, said the best thing governments could do is tell the public to “hunker down”, as there would be little which can be done to prepare for the inevitable.

Mr Frost was writing in response to the question: “If it were discovered that an asteroid was going to wipe humanity out, say in 2 months, how would the governments of the world respond?”

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The value of asteroids

(Image: EXPRESS)

He said: “That’s a tough one. Movies tell us they would keep it secret. There’s a lot of sense to that. Mass panic can be more dangerous than the actual event.

“But my experience working in government is that the government really isn’t good at keeping anything secret unless it begins within a secretive part of the culture, like the military.

“Something like this would likely be first discovered by someone that couldn’t spell ‘security clearance’. It would be evident to astronomers all over the world.

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NASA's budget by year

(Image: EXPRESS)

“Feeling helpless, the government would likely just tell us to ‘hunker down’ and duct tape our window seams.

“Then the Democrats would blame it on the Republicans for ignoring global warming and the Republicans would blame it on the Democrats for not praying in school.”

The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe has hung over us for a surprisingly long time. Since pretty much the point when we became aware of other planetary bodies and something other than this earth we stand on we have contemplated it and looked to the sky to wonder on it. One of the first targets of this fascination with the worlds beyond our own was the moon, already long the focal point of myth and legend, and it is here where an intriguing and odd history of aliens and proposed space travel unfolds in a very weird sequence of historical oddities.

Back in the 17th century the thought of actually traveling to space was so beyond us that it wasn’t even really science fiction yet, or even a thing at all. We simply did not understand the planets and space in general enough to even fully comprehend it at the time, although there were more and more discoveries being made all of the time, notably those of Galileo and his newfangled telescope. It was at around this time that a man named John Wilkins would be born in 1614, and his childhood obsession with the voyages of great explorers such as Christopher Columbus, Francis Drake, and Ferdinand Magellan would shape what he was to become later in life.

Wilkins would go on to complete his studies at Oxford in both theology and natural philosophy, also studying at Cambridge, and he had shown a lifelong fascination with the field of astronomy, which was still very much in its infancy at the time. He would achieve quite a good amount of respect and high standing, later even marrying the sister of self-styled Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Oliver Cromwell. He had also become a full-fledged vicar and clergyman, an interesting but not uncommon at the time matching of religion and science, and would be one of the founding members of the the Royal Society, as well as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining great prominence as a natural philosopher and author.

Wilkins was, in short, one of the most highly regarded intellectuals and academics of his time, and in this capacity he made quite a few groundbreaking propositions. Among his many wild ideas were that a universal language should be instated amongst the world’s scientists, a universal system of weights and measurements should be used, and a revolutionary way to record time accurately by use of a system of pendulums. Some of these ideas were quite groundbreaking and forward thinking, such as the standard system of length and weight that predated the metric system by over a hundred years. He was also responsible for all manner of strange and ingenious inventions, but perhaps his most out there achievements sat firmly with his longtime fascination with space and the life that he believed was out there within it.

Wilkins believed that not only did other living creatures inhabit the moon and beyond, but that it was possible to create flying machines that were capable of reaching these places, in an age when this had been previously not even a thing. These were heady, revolutionary concepts at the time, but this did not stop Wilkins from penning sophisticated and in-depth treatises on his ideas entitled The Discovery of a World in the Moone in 1638, and A Discourse Concerning A New Planet in 1640. Some of his wild ideas on the properties of the moon were fascinating and well ahead of their time, many of them quite accurate in retrospect, such as that the moon created no light of its own, but rather merely reflected the sun’s light, and that it was constantly hit by meteorites that left impact craters and orbited Earth in the same way that the Earth orbits the sun. In fact, Wilkins was describing how bodies orbit each other and stay aloft long before Isaac Newton was contemplating such things. Of course he was wrong about quite a few things, such as erroneously concluding that the moon had its own atmosphere, but for the era his predictions were extraordinary.

Not only this, but he also believed that trade could actually be established with these proposed beings, and his first target was the moon and its inhabitants, which he called “Selenites,” and with who he seriously began plans to establish trade with. To this end he began drawing out plans for a flying ship to reach it, very much like a sailing vessel in basic design, but with wings instead of sails. In Wilkins’ opinion, the craft could be outfitted with feathered wings and powered by a combustion engine, which would by his (unfortunately wrong) calculations manage to escape Earth’s gravity, which he viewed as merely a type of magnetism. For this planned mission, Wilkins made no plans to provide food rations for passengers, as he was convinced that a zero gravity environment would not generate hunger, and he also did not account for any oxygen that would be needed by these early astronauts, as it was thought they would be able to breathe up there just fine, with him writing, “space travelers would soon grow accustomed to the purer air breathed by angels who inhabit the vast space between planets.” Looking back with what we know now it all seems kind of silly, but Wilkins was very serious about building this craft, and went about drawing up plans with fellow astronomer Robert Hooke, with all of the enthusiasm of two little kids making a boat out of a mattress to take them around the world. It is extraordinary, as remember that this was an age when vehicles like cars and airplanes were not even on our radar yet, not to be invented for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately for these two complete and utter early space geeks, reality began to set in before they could get their death trap off the ground. With new discoveries in the nature of vacuum and magnetism, Wilkins realized that gravity and magnetism were different, and that his calculations were therefore way off. It occurred to both Wilkins and Hooke that this whole space travel thing wasn’t going to be as easy, or cheap, as they had thought, and that the technology to do so simply wasn’t feasible yet. They would both go on to other work, and Wilkins would pass away in 1672 at the age of 58, having never realized his dream of trading with those lunar aliens or of even getting to space period. Yet although Wilkins ultimately failed he is still one of the first pioneers of the field of space travel, and one of the first to seriously contemplate how to achieve it, giving him a place in history as a great daydreamer and innovator.

Despite the fact that Wilkins’ ideas on space travel and trade with aliens on the moon were dashed, the idea that there were indeed living beings on the moon endured, and that brings us up into the 1800s, when in 1835 there appeared a series of six articles in the New York Sun newspaper, authored by a “Dr. Andrew Grant,” which were fantastical to say the least. The articles claimed that the great astronomer Sir John Herschel had discovered concrete proof of life on the moon, which was apparently not only inhabited, but absolutely teeming with life. The articles, supposedly reprinted from a publication called The Edinburgh Journal of Science, claimed that all manner of incredible animals and entities had been discovered on the moon, as well as lush vegetation, oceans, forests, and rushing rivers and even an intelligent civilization of bat-like flying humanoids.

When the series of articles appeared the populace was spellbound, with everyone looking up at the moon and imagining what wonders were up there, and even such imminent scientific establishments as Yale University were lured in by it all, but, as you must no doubt have surmised by now, it was all hogwash. Grant was a completely fictitious character, and the whole thing had been merely a satire of ideas on life on the moon and publicity stunt to increase sales conjured up by Sun reporter Richard Adams Locke. Even Herschel had had no idea about his name being used for such a stunt, although he at first reportedly found it very amusing. What has gone on to be called “The Great Moon Hoax” had other ramifications, such as many people refusing to believe that it was a hoax even after the paper admitted it, citing conspiracies, as well as none other than Edgar Allen Poe accusing the paper of plagiarizing his work The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall.

Although increased understanding about how space, planets, and the moon work increasingly squashed all debate on whether life exists up there on the moon, it is still an interesting peek into another bygone era when the amazing possibility of life on the moon was still alive and people had a sense of wonder about it all. It marked the beginning of our longing to reach out past our own planet to space and beyond, to see what amazing sights await us, and whether the moon has or ever had organic life as we know it. It is a chapter in our species’ desire to go out over new horizons and connect with other life in this cold universe we spin about, currently totally alone.