Experts Warn There’s A 100% Certainty Earth Will Be Hit By An Asteroid

by Staff Reporter / May 02, 2018 02:20 AM EDT

Even smaller asteroids like these still pose a significant danger to earth and her inhabitants. Photo by Stefan S./Flickr

There is a 100 percent certainty that earth will be hit by an asteroid. This is the warning of a group of experts who concluded that the planet's current asteroid detecting technology just can't keep track of every possible space-based threat out there.

The B612 Foundation issued the warning after calculating that even with all the telescopes in the world will not be able to track the millions of asteroids in near earth orbit. The Inquisitr reported that the B612 Foundation is actually legit and that its members are composed of engineers, astronomers, and other scientists who care about the risks posed by these rogue space rocks.

Everyone knows just how devastating an asteroid could be once it hits the earth. One such space rock landed somewhere in the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago. The devastation was on a scale that's hard to imagine. The impact created a crater 186 miles in diameter and even caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to National Geographic.

Recognizing this danger, NASA started tracking larger asteroids in 2005, News.com.au reported. The project only limited itself to asteroids larger than 140 meters in diameter. To date, it has tracked around 90 percent of these asteroids or around 18,000. Of those 18,000 being currently tracked, NASA says none of them pose an immediate threat. However, no data is yet available for the 10 percent that has not been tracked.

But that's not all. Since NASA only restricted its tracking to asteroids with diameters of 140 meters and above, the agency left a lot more of their smaller asteroids untracked. Estimates say there are millions of asteroids with diameters ranging from 15 to 140 meters in near earth orbit.

Just because they're smaller does not mean they are less dangerous. In fact, a Science News article already calculated the potential death toll for these smaller-sized asteroids. According to the publication, a 50-meter wide asteroid will kill around 4,126 people. On the other hand, a space rock twice that size (100 meters) will result in 18,424 deaths.

"The telescopes' field of view is very small and the sky is very big," B612 president Danica Remy explained. She also added that it's a matter of time, saying "It's 100 percent certain we'll be hit, but we're not 100 percent certain when."