Just one asteroid strike on Earth can make humans go extinct, says this space documentary

It is no secret that 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, causing most of the dinosaur species to go extinct. It even caused a mini ice age, and kept the Earth frozen for a long period of time. But the surprising thing is that the asteroid that caused all this damage was just 10 kilometers large. The scale of this is probably the most terrifying aspect. An upcoming space documentary called Asteroid Rush has released a new trailer that highlights the same danger that now looms on all of humanity. Just one asteroid strike could wipe us all out and send the Earth back to another ice age. But the only question that remains is how likely is it to happen and is there a way to protect us from such a grim fate? Read on to find out.

Space documentary says an asteroid strike is enough to wipe out humanity from Earth

The documentary Asteroid Rush is a two-part series that is each an hour long. The first part focuses on the risks from asteroids and the likelihood of an asteroid strike to the Earth. It also highlights what countries are doing to collectively protect the planet from any such incident. The second part takes a different approach and presents the asteroids as early solar system remnants that still carry the information from the time when Earth didn’t fully form. Scientists believe that researching this information will help in finding out the secret behind the origin of humans.

The documentary will be released on Curiosity stream on June 9th. Right now, there is an exclusive trailer of the documentary that can be watched on Space.com. Click here to take a look at the video.

What is the likelihood of an asteroid strike to the Earth

According to NASA, an impact-event (the event of a large asteroid striking the Earth) is not very likely at least in this century. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office or PDCO continuously monitors over 20,000 near Earth objects (NEO) and according to various models, none of the asteroids are predicted to strike us. The highest probability is given to an asteroid called 2010 RF 12, which is a 7 meters wide asteroid. It has a 5 percent chance of striking the Earth in the year 2095.

However, the prediction model can only rely on past data and its steadiness. But since we know so little about the universe, a slight collision in the asteroid belt or a random gravitational redirection to an asteroid can easily change things and make us vulnerable to an attack. And that is why constant monitoring is essential.