The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan has verified that the Earth will be destroyed by a meteorite impact in July 2013 and found out that “many countries have already taken measures.

On July 5, ’25, a meteorite/asteroid will hit the earth.”

If a meteorite of the kind that wiped out the dinosaurs that ruled the earth 66 million years ago were to strike, the human race would certainly be doomed to extinction.

The “destruction of the earth in the seventh month” reminds us of the “Great Prophecy of Nostradamus (in the seventh month of the year 1999, a great king of terror will descend from the heavens),” but the theory that has been spreading this time originated in the manga “The Future I Saw” by Ryo Tatsuki, who predicted the Great East Japan Earthquake based on his own prophetic dream in the form of a manga.

In his manga, he predicted the Great East Japan Earthquake, saying, “The catastrophe will occur in March ’11. However, it is unclear whether this catastrophe will be a massive earthquake, an undersea volcanic eruption, or the fall of a meteorite or asteroid.

Another prophecy that supports this theory is an ancient prophecy of the Hopi tribe of indigenous people in the United States, which states that “when the blue star appears, it will be the end of the world. This has now developed into an urban legend that “a Japanese man was told by a Hopi chief that a green comet will collide with the earth in the year ’25.

The most important factor was the authority of scientists. Kunio Yasue, professor emeritus at Notre Dame Seishin University, who studied astronomy at Tohoku University, theoretical physics and mathematical physics at Kyoto University and Nagoya University, and was a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, obtained the information from a NASA alumnus on YouTube and other media . He has transmitted that “a piece of asteroid will impact on July 5, ’25,” and that “fortune tellers and prophets are moving their residences to higher ground.

Why next year, can meteorite/asteroid impacts be predicted, and is there a possibility of the end of human history? We asked Hitoshi Yamaoka, 59, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and director of the NPO Japan Spaceguard Association.

Specialized organizations in various countries are taking countermeasures.

To begin with, from an astronomical point of view, I feel uncomfortable with the term ‘falling meteorites. Meteorites’ are fragments of small celestial bodies, and ‘falling’ is caused by the Earth’s gravity, so it would be more accurate to call it ‘small celestial body impacting the Earth.

Mr. Yamaoka began his talk by pointing this out. He said that in order to prevent collisions with small celestial bodies, specialized organizations in various countries are taking countermeasures.

In the 1990s, a project called Spaceguard (Planetary Defense) was launched to protect humans from celestial bodies colliding with Earth, and in 1996 the International Spaceguard Foundation and the Japan Spaceguard Association were established.

Partly as a result of the project, the discovery of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) approaching the Earth has rapidly increased. According to the Japan Spaceguard Association, about 400 NEOs approaching close to Earth’s orbit have been discovered.

When a NEO is detected, we first calculate its orbit. We monitor it to see if it is likely to collide with the Earth or if there is any danger of collision. Then we try to see if we can deflect the orbit. For example, we are conducting an experiment in which we stretch a sail made of a thin film of resin on a celestial body and use the sun’s rays as propulsion to gradually shift its orbit.

In fact, in 2004, “Apophis, an asteroid with a diameter of about 340 meters that will approach the Earth in ’29,” was discovered. Although Apophis will not impact the earth, various organizations are continuing their exploration. For example, NASA is experimenting to see how much the asteroid’s orbit will be changed by crashing a probe into it, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) is planning to do the same. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) plans to take similar measures in the future.

JAXA plans to send the asteroid probe “Hayabusa2” to approach the asteroid “2001 CC21,” which is considered to have a possibility of coming close to the earth, in July ’26. However, “in the case of small asteroids, it may not be possible to observe them.

For example, the meteorite that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2001, and the Narashino meteorite that was reportedly seen as a fireball in Chiba Prefecture on July 2, 2008, we may not be able to observe them until just before impact.

It is a horror if there are meteorites that cannot be observed until just before impact. …… What kind of damage can be expected from the impact of a small celestial body?

The only thing we can observe is something large enough to cause a natural disaster on Earth. If the object is larger than 1 km in diameter, we can observe it. If it is several tens of meters in diameter, we may not be able to observe it. The Chelyabinsk meteorite, for example, did not kill anyone, but some people were injured by broken windows.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite broke apart at 27 km above the ground. The shock wave damaged 4,474 buildings in Chelyabinsk, 50 kilometers from the explosion point, injuring 1,491 people.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite is estimated to be about 17 meters in diameter and weigh about 10,000 tons. According to Newtonian mechanics, the energy of impact is proportional to mass times velocity squared, so if the size of the meteorite doubled, the energy of impact would increase by a factor of three to the eighth power. If a small object several tens of meters in diameter, larger than the Chelyabinsk meteorite and possibly unobservable, were on an orbit to impact the earth, it would be impossible to countermeasure the impact if it could not be observed before it entered the atmosphere.

In conclusion, the “meteorite impact on the earth in ’25 will destroy the human race” is nothing more than an occult urban legend,” Yamaoka said, “ but it is possible that a small celestial body several tens of meters in diameter will enter the atmosphere undetected. If that happens, “the possibility of a catastrophe is not zero,” Yamaoka said .

After it is known that a meteorite will strike, the only thing we can do is to evacuate to an area that is likely to suffer as little damage as …… possible, hide in an underground shelter, or pray for the best. In the face of the universe, human beings are so small that we could fly away. We should not be overly fearful, but we should not take it for granted that we are alive.