Featured Image Credit: Gotham / Contributor / Science Photo Library - ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI via Getty
After NASA revealed an asteroid has flown scarily close to Earth, tech billionaire Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) to make a dark prediction for our civilization.
Earlier this week NASA published images obtained by the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar that show a huge asteroid named 2024 ON just a day before it's close approach with Earth.
The stadium-sized asteroid came within 620,000 miles of Earth, which is considered 'relatively close'. To put that into some perspective, NASA say that's about 2.6 times the distance between the Moon and Earth.
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In a blog post yesterday, NASA explained that the asteroid is around 755 feet (350 meters) long, with features of more than 12.3 feet (3.75 meters) stretching across the surface.
The scientists revealed that the asteroid is classes as 'potentially hazardous' but luckily they say it does not pose a threat to Earth's population in the foreseeable future.
As posts on X began to go viral, Elon Musk decided to chime in with his two cents on the asteroid.
Replying to an alarming post about the asteroid, Musk tweeted the following:
"One of these days, a large comet will hit Earth and destroy almost all life, as has happened many times in the past.
"Eventually, the Sun will expand enough to boil the oceans and destroy all life.
"Either become a spacefaring civilization or die – those all the two choices."
Pretty alarming stuff.
Musk hasn't been shy in his efforts to get humanity living on Mars, creating SpaceX to help us get us there. He's cited his 'game-plan' to get one million people on Mars, for example. Though astronomers have been known to poke holes in his ambitious theory.
X users had a lot to say about Musk's blunt post. One user wrote: "Not if you build a defense to stop the astroid. I think you can do it. That being said cybertrucks suck."
Another user tried to put these threats into perspective saying: "Asteroid is more likely to occur first, but we may be able to develop technology to deflect it. Sun expanding is billions of years away."
A third user seemed genuinely alarmed by Musk's prediction, writing: "So many people underestimate the importance of this."
Luckily, NASA have not warned of any life-threatening asteroids hitting Earth anytime soon, though many scientists want people to understand the very real threat of climate change that poses a much more immediate threat to our society.
