Comet More Devastating Than An Asteroid! Why Earth Should Be Preparing For a Comet Impact Now

Comets have been considered as icy bodies of wonder while asteroids are apocalyptic menaces. Scientists now reveal that comets could be deadlier and even more catastrophic than an asteroid given the right circumstances. It is also high time that the earth prepares for a comet threat aside from spotting asteroids that can potentially hit the earth.

Space.com has the exclusive report on why comets should also be considered equally or even more dangerous than an asteroid. Joseph Nuth, a researcher at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said that comets can also deliver a catastrophic effect on earth but has long been ignored.

Nuth said that the main reason for this is that people think that there is nothing to be done when a comet hits the earth. It is also very difficult to spot and track comets. But even with these circumstances, preparedness could help avert disaster.

Scientists also explain that a comet could come out from nowhere adding to the difficulty of tracking it. An example would be the Comet Siding Spring spotted in January 2013 which was 0.3 mile wide in size. After 22 months, this gigantic ball of ice nearly clipped Mars coming with 87,000 miles. If a huge comet such as Siding Spring is headed towards earth, it could be impossible to have a spacecraft out to deflect it.

And even if comet impacts are rarer than asteroids, it could be completely cataclysmic. Experts have to come up with a plan right now according to FXNCC which also has an exclusive report on catastrophic comets.

Nuth mentioned that there are a number of ways that a comet may be deflected but the most important thing is to reduce reaction time. One plan was to build two spacecrafts that will intercept and observe. The observer craft would study the comet and find out if it is a threat to earth while the other one would be launched to deflect possibly with nuclear weapons.

Still other plans included the use of lasers to vaporize a comet from afar. This is a sufficiently large laser that will deflect any comet and can also be used to de-orbit space junk and other tasks in space.