Asteroid warning: Watch huge rock explode over Russia as NASA prepares for 'God of Chaos'

As the world prepares for the arrival of the ‘God of Chaos’ in the next 10 years, Express.co.uk takes a look back at the moment a meteor – a small asteroid — about the size of a six-story building — exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. Footage from the time shows a huge bright light soaring across the sky and some scientists believe the meteor was so bright it may have briefly outshone the sun. The blast was stronger than a nuclear explosion, triggering detections from monitoring stations as far away as Antarctica. The shock wave which was generated shattered glass and injured about 1,200 people. 

The dangers were granted an even greater sense of urgency after Elon Musk just admitted that a devastating asteroid is coming to the planet and Earth currently has no defence in a bone-chilling tweet.

Space X CEO Elon Musk admitted Earth had no defence against impending asteroid threats as he responded to Express.co.uk’s Apophis ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid story.

NASA has already begun preparations for the arrival of asteroid 99942 Apophis – dubbed the ‘God of Chaos’ asteroid – which will skim past the earth in 10 years.

The asteroid measures 340 meters across and will pass within just 19,000 miles of Earth’s surface.

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The billionaire CEO issued his chilling assessment after responding to friend Joe Rogan who shared the asteroid story from the Express.co.uk website.

Mr Musk Tweeted: “Great name! Wouldn’t worry about this particular one, but a big rock will hit Earth eventually and we currently have no defence.”

It comes as the European Space Agency (ESA) released a hypothetical simulation of a situation in 2028 when a ‘city-killer’ asteroid threatens Earth.

As part of the global effort to hunt out risky celestial objects such as asteroids and comets, ESA is developing an automated telescope for nightly sky surveys.

This telescope is the first in a future network that would completely scan the sky and automatically identify possible new near-Earth objects, or NEOs, for follow up and later checking by human researchers.

By placing one in the Northern and one in the Southern hemisphere, the entire sky will be scanned within 48 hours. Simulations have shown that about four asteroids larger than 1 meter can be detected every year before they will impact on Earth.

The first Flyeye telescope is expected to be ready for installation at its final location on Mount Mufara in Sicily at the end of 2019.

If an asteroid is determined to be potentially dangerous, emergency response agencies across the globe are informed of impact risk, and given support and advice from the NEOCC and other organisations.

It will get one chance to hits its target, the small moonlet in the binary asteroid system Didymos.

The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is an ideal test target as it allows scientists to study how the smaller asteroids orbits.

Work has been “ramped up” at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland and other locations across the country as the mission heads towards its summer 2021 launch.

NASA scientists are aware that as the asteroid flies by the planet in 2029, its orbit trajectory may also change thus raising fears that in the future the massive rock could collide with the planet.

The rock is expected to shine exceptionally bright in the sky and pick up speed as it flies across the sky in 2029.

According to some researchers, the immense size of the rock is not a cause for concern as there is a 1 to 100,000 chance of the asteroid striking Earth.

source: express.co.uk