I have observed that everything that happens in the courtyard of the Universe is, outright, “upright”.
The Universe does not let any absurd things ever happen in its yard.
If you are in doubt, I propose – just wait till I get you around.
The fact is – Universe has no room for any “aberrations”.
For instance, as you should be aware some of the planets do not spin around their axes in the same direction as the rest of them, spin.
Do you call it an “aberration”?
No!
The very fact that even the retrograde planets (which spin in a clockwise direction instead of anticlockwise direction) are also able to revolve around the Sun affirms that it is not at all necessary that a planet should spin anticlockwise only if it has to chase around the Sun. It can revolve around the Sun even if it spins in the opposite direction.
The direction in which it spins has nothing to do with its capacity to revolve around the Sun.
Rather it goes on to prove that if planets spinning both ways may revolve around the Sun, the planets that may not be even spinning should be also able to revolve around the Sun with the same ease.
On the contrary, it lets us deduce that though their mass should have decided the speed at which they should be revolving around the Sun, it is quite possible that none of the planets may have started spinning around their axes from the very day when they should have got established into their orbits.
They may have started spinning clockwise or anticlockwise much later only when some asteroids should have hit them at the outer edge, streaking from above, tangentially, in the manner as displayed in the following diagram.
The way, some asteroid should have hit the Earth from above at a point 23.45 degrees below the ecliptic (as shown in the diagram), Earth should have started spinning around its axis “anticlockwise”.
The same way, since some asteroids may have hit the Venus, Uranus and Pluto tangentially at an angle exceeding 90°, all of them should have started spinning “clockwise” (instead of spinning in the anticlockwise direction).
So, now, you know that these planets are also not retrograde, without a reason.
Only the asteroids that should not have hit the Earth tangentially at its rim could have created craters where they would have struck the Earth destroying everything that should have existed there.
The trouble is – such asteroids hit the Earth at supersonic speed and don’t give us time to save ourselves from their attack.
It is not difficult to imagine how much havoc an asteroid may wreak if we compared it with the havoc the two jet planes that had dashed against the Twin Trade Towers of New York in the year 2001 to have grazed them down to the ground just in less than two hours.
There is a marked similarity in the way asteroids strike some site and the way these planes had crashed into the North Tower and the South Tower of the World Trade Centre.
Though we do not perceive imminence of any big sized asteroid to hit the Earth even over the next two or three hundred years, it is a matter of great relief that ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA [1] have joined hands to test whether we may deflect any asteroid that may spear into our planet, midway so that it did not smash on the Earth.
Though it would be better if we may equip ourselves to protect the Earth from their invasion through appropriate technology, the most challenging thing about them is the fact that they hit the Earth just in a wink.
As we know, in those days, we did not have the necessary wherewithal to know in advance whether any foreign celestial body was heading toward the Earth and if so, whether it was likely to hit the Earth or was likely to zoom past it just like a storm as we, probably, are now in possession.
As compared to what happened when jet planes had hit the Twin Towers, the damage done by these planes was not even a millionth fraction of the damage we may incur if an asteroid measuring more than 30 metres ever hits the planet, if you knew how big craters were created by various asteroids that have hit the Earth from time to time such as the one known as “Vredefort Crater” of South Africa that measures about 300 kilometres across when an asteroid is believed to have hit the Earth about 2 billion years back.
Steps being taken by ESA and NASA to evolve an “Earth Defense System”
NASA has been planning a project along with ESA, that it calls the “Double Asteroid Redirect Test” (DART) to test whether it is possible to deflect the course of an incoming asteroid by shooting a nuclear projectile at it on its way itself so that it did not hit the Earth.
For this test-run, they have chosen an asteroid known as “Didymos” and a much smaller rock orbiting it called “Didymoon” situated about 11.2 million kilometres away from us in the Asteroid Belt.
“Didymos” has been chosen for this purpose because it happens to be a binary (having a moon) asteroid measuring about 17 kilometres, in diameter, it is large enough to wreak havoc across a wide swath of Earth if it knocked down on the Earth.
ESA has stationed a probe named “Hera” around “Didymos” and “Didymoon” and NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to circle the asteroid between 2020 and 2021 so as to dash a projectile against “Didymoon” in October 2022.
Once that’s done, a year later – the ESA probe will be commissioned to determine how successful the course-correction may have been.
Though they have no idea what other technique could be possibly employed if this trial fails but they plan to use this technique even for larger asteroids if it succeeds.
But, just imagine – how lucky we are that some asteroid should have hit the Earth in a manner that the Earth should have started rotating around its axis since we would not have had “days and nights” on the Earth if it would not have been spinning around its axis.
Not only days and nights, but we also would not have had so many seasons, either.
Can you imagine – what sort of life we would have led if we would not have had “days and nights” or would not have had “summer and winter”, on the Earth?
If that asteroid would not have hit the Earth, it would not have been rotating around its axis nor we would have had any “days or nights” or so many seasons, as pleasantries.
Thank God – there were no NASA people anywhere around, to have thought of deflecting even the asteroid that should have sent the Earth into a spin by smacking it.
But the point is – though we may be able to save our planet by deflecting the asteroids shall we be able to avert the chances of the obliquity of the axis of rotation of the Earth, getting escalated or de-escalated?
Most of the cities situated along the borderlines of the oceans may get dunked into the sea if the obliquity of Earth’s axis may increase or decrease even by two or three degrees, over a course of time.
I don’t think we should be able to tide over any such eventuality, howsoever best we may try.
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