What's an Earth-crosser?

 

Here is the NEAR-Shoemaker probe neatly parked on a Near Earth Asteroid: Eros, on 12 February 2001. 

Isn’t it better that we land on the ‘god of love’ than it land on us?                                        

 

Let’s leave the Curiosity rover looking for water on Mars and see if Johannes Kepler was right in 1596 when he declared: “Between Mars and Jupiter I shall place a planet!”  170 years later, astronomer Johann Titius claimed: “But should the Lord Architect have left that space empty? Not at all!” His Titius-Bode Law tells us that at 420 million kilometres from the Sun, there should be another planet in our Solar System. 

Giuseppe Piazzi finally found ‘it’ on New Year’s Day 1801 – Ceres, the largest asteroid at 974 kms diameter. After 205 years the gap could be filled in by discovering millions of planetary fragments, thanks to Jupiter being so big that nothing of any size can exist near it. 

So, these asteroids are in a neat orbit?  Well…….unfortunately, no. 

The Trojans match Jupiter’s orbit and others even cross the orbit of Mars, but what about Earth? U.S. Congress has now realized that not only can we find asteroids but ‘Earth-crossers’ can also find us. Already one has punched a 300 km wide hole in Mexico producing the Chicxulub Basin.

Come on you brilliant NASA scientists!...which Earth-crosser asteroid out there has our number on it and what are you going to do about it? We could do without the headache spoiling our fun. Can’t you make Revelation 8:10-11 prove to be just a symbolic myth?

Photo credit: news.bbc.co.uk