Elon Musk's space vehicle might crash into Earth, scientists suggest
| Updated: Feb 19, 2018, 14:54 IST
Elon Musk made headlines as he launched his space vehicle just recently. Well, latest reports suggest that there are chances that his vehicle might come down crashing right into Earth! Three scientists just took a close look at the vehicle's orbit over the next million years and they found that there is a slight chance the car might crash into Earth or Venus.
However, there is nothing to panic too much about as the odds of that happening are small. They are somewhere around 6 percent for Earth and 2.5 percent for Venus. And a million years is a very long time. Our species has only been around for about a fifth of that span. There's plenty of room for civilization-ending catastrophes to occur long before Musk's vehicle re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Besides, the car would likely burn up before reaching the surface too!
Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlicky, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasise that it's impossible to map out precisely where 'Starman' will go as his vehicle floats through space. The roadster is currently drifting on an elliptical orbit around the sun that repeatedly crosses the path of Mars (though the two bodies are not predicted to collide). At its farthest, the car will be 1.67 times Earth's distance from the sun. The roadster will experience its next close encounter with Earth in 2091. They conclude that the car's "dynamical lifetime" will probably be a few tens of millions of years. Now, that's a long time to worry about the crash, right? So, sit back and relax. There's nothing to worry about…we think…
However, there is nothing to panic too much about as the odds of that happening are small. They are somewhere around 6 percent for Earth and 2.5 percent for Venus. And a million years is a very long time. Our species has only been around for about a fifth of that span. There's plenty of room for civilization-ending catastrophes to occur long before Musk's vehicle re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Besides, the car would likely burn up before reaching the surface too!
Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlicky, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasise that it's impossible to map out precisely where 'Starman' will go as his vehicle floats through space. The roadster is currently drifting on an elliptical orbit around the sun that repeatedly crosses the path of Mars (though the two bodies are not predicted to collide). At its farthest, the car will be 1.67 times Earth's distance from the sun. The roadster will experience its next close encounter with Earth in 2091. They conclude that the car's "dynamical lifetime" will probably be a few tens of millions of years. Now, that's a long time to worry about the crash, right? So, sit back and relax. There's nothing to worry about…we think…