Comet Swift-Tuttle responsible for the Perseid meteor shower could wipe out Earth

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The 16-MILE wide comet responsible for the Perseid meteor shower will wipe out Earth. But nobody knows exactly when.

The space object has been recently branded one of humanity’s biggest threats.

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Comet responsible for the Perseid meteor shower may impact Earth. via Forbes

Each year, the most powerful meteor shower, the Perseids, is created by Comet Swift-Tuttle.

Now scientists have calculated that it is only a matter of time before the comet comes closer or even strikes our planet, but nobody knows exactly when.

comet impact earth, Comet responsible for the Perseid meteor shower may impact Earth, comet earth impact
Comet Swift-Tuttle during its last fly into the inner Solar System in 1992. The influence of the gravity of the other planets has the potential to dramatically change its orbit. via Forbes

If the giant comet was to impact Earth, the shock would be 30 times stronger than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. The strike would release more than one billion megatons of energy – or 20,000,000 hydrogen bombs exploding all at once. This would be the largest mass extinction our world has seen in hundreds of millions of years.

comet impact earth, Comet responsible for the Perseid meteor shower may impact Earth, comet earth impact
The orbital path of comet Swift-Tuttle. Via Teaching Stars

In the case of Comet Swift-Tuttle, this cataclysmic event will however occur in 4479 – 2,462 years away and humans are almost sure to be safe.

The biggest threat is if the comet flies so close to Jupiter or another giant planet in our solar system and that a gravitational pull changes its trajectory toward Earth at an earlier time.

comet impact earth, Comet responsible for the Perseid meteor shower may impact Earth, comet earth impact
Meteor crater in Arizona is over 1.1 km (0.7 mi) in diameter, and represents only a 3-10 MegaTon release of energy. Imagine a 16miles wide space rock now! via Forbes

Whether discussing monumental tsunamis or the innumerable comets in the Solar System, this book, Impact!: The Threat of Comets and Asteroids, will amaze any curious readers about space, unexpected natural phenomenon, and the future of Planet Earth.

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