By: Moulana Aneesur Rahman Nadvi

A New Research on Asteroids
New researches are coming up on asteroids almost on daily basis. In a new study, scientists have identified the countries that are most likely to be worst hit by the catastrophic damage caused by asteroids. Research from the University of Southhampton have identified for the first time those countries which will suffer catastrophic loss of life or be so crippled that it will be almost impossible for them to recover. The top ten countries most at risk are: China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the U.S, the Philippines, Italy, the U.K, Brazil and Nigeria.

NASA said in its research that asteroid that could be potentially destructive to the earth and those that are 330 feet wide, their figure is a terrifying 47,000. These asteroids can cause enormous damage to the earth locally or globally.

Threat from the Comets
This is with regard to asteroids. But the Earth faces much bigger threat from comets than asteroids. Comets are enormous masses of rock and ice. They are much larger than the asteroids and can be up to 100 kilometers or more across. Their traveling speed too is many times fasters than the traveling speed of asteroids. Asteroid normally travel at a speed of 20-25 km per second (72-90 km per hour), while the comets travel at an average of 60-70 km per second (2.16 lakh – 2.52 lakh km per hour). Therefore, hitting of such a massive rock with such force can cause devastation of unimaginable magnitude on Earth, and wreak havoc on global scale.

Another problem with the comets is that their orbital parameters are often poorly known and therefore difficult to project into the future to see if they pose any threat. Hence, scientists believe that within just six months’ time, any unseen planet is capable of hitting Earth from the outside of our solar system. Since comets are massive in size and about 100 km in diameter, and their velocity is extremely high (hundreds of thousands kilometers per hour), their collision with the earth may annihilate the planet Earth within no time. According to scientists, the chances of this happening are high. So far (July 2018), a total of 6339 comets have been discovered, and their numbers is steadily increasing. Scientists believe that this number is only a fraction of the actual number of comets, as they have their presence in Outer Cloud in trillions.

Evidence of Catastrophic Impact Events on Earth and Moon in the Past
Another shocking revelation of this sort is that the earth has witnessed bombardment by space debris throughout its long geological history. The Moon, the closest neighbour of the earth, has also been the victim of these celestial bombardments. The millions of smallpox like scars that are seen on the face of the Moon through naked eye or binaculars are in fact craters that came up as a result of bombardment from space. Scientists acknowledged this fact after a lengthy debate. Scientists believe that since Earth is much greater in size and has stronger gravity field than the Moon, it must have been struck perhaps 30 times more frequently than its nearest neighbour. Then, one question that arises here naturally is why are the impact craters preserved on Moon and not on Earth?

According to the scientists, it could be attributed to the enormously dynamic nature of planet Earth and the continuous activity of plate tectonic, due to which a large part of the earth’s crust is renewed every few million years. Therefore, records of impact events that took place in the ancient history of the Earth are not preserved on the Earth, whereas it is different in the case of moon. There exists neither ocean nor plate tectonics. Hence, even the oldest records of impacts events are well preserved there. Despite the dynamic nature of Earth, scientists have so far succeeded in discovering 172 impact craters. Hence, the idea that the Earth is susceptible to bombardment from space is now a scientific fact. In this way, the numerous craters scattered on the surface of the moon seems to remind us of the dangerous interplanetary collisions on earth sooner or later in the future.

The argument continued amongst the scientists whether interplanetary bombardments occur regularly on earth, or do such impacts occur sporadically? By which the attempt was to find the answer to the question: Is the Earth at risk of such catastrophic collisions in the near future?

In this regard, a large group of scientists believe that the Earth, during its rotation or our entire solar system during its movement in our galaxy passes through such parts of space which contrary to normal circumstances, consists of large scale space debris, which increases the risk of collisions.

Dangerous Oort Cloud
Scientists have put forward a number of theories in this regard. According to one theory, our entire solar system is surrounded by a great spherical swarm of comets called Oort Cloud. Their orbits lie far beyond the orbit of Pluto, the outermost planet of our solar system. These comets enter our solar system very rarely in ones or twos. However, if some external influence were to interfere with the Cloud, these comets may change their orbits and move towards the inner solar system in hundreds and thousands, significantly raising the threat of collision with the planets of our solar system including our own planet, and wreaking havoc globally.

A number of theories have been put forward by the scientists to explain how the Oort Cloud might be disrupted periodically, and these comets turn towards the inner solar system. Mike Rampino of New York University and his colleagues have proposed a theory known as Shiva hypothesis (after the Hindu god). According to this theory, the obit of our solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy is responsible for this. The orbit of our solar system in Milky Way galaxy is wave-like, which moves up and down. This orbit affects the gravitational pull from other stars in the galaxy, which in turn disturbs the orbits of Oort Cloud comets to an extent sufficient to send an influx of new comets into the solar system. This increases the possibility of large impacts on the Earth, wreaking havoc on global scale. This has happened a few million years ago, and it can happen again so fast that no one will have the opportunity to recover.

Another View about Oort Cloud
According to Mike Ramino’s aforementioned view of the Oort cloud, the Earth faces such risk from the Oort Cloud once in many millions of years. On the contrary, the British astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier have proposed another view that the earth is at risk of such catastrophic collisions every few thousand years. According to him, the Earth came under such fierce bombardment four thousand years ago. According to them, a comet from the Oort cloud may enter our solar system every now and again for some unknown reasons. This comet is rapidly captured and torn apart by the strong gravitational fields of sun or the Jupiter. Large planets explode in this way, may form a million 1-kilometer size small rocks and these fragments begin to orbit our sun. This suddenly and dramatically increases the risk of collisions with the Earth. If few or even one or two of these fragments were destined to collide with the earth, it can bring catastrophic destruction to the Earth on a global scale. According to Clube and Napier, the last giant comet from the Oort Cloud entered our solar system ten thousand years ago. It was torn apart by the gravitational pull of our sun, and split into small fragments. This debris which is called as Taurid Complex, is orbiting the sun. Earth passes close to this debris every year in the month of December. According to scientists, there is a strong possibility of this debris hitting our Planet in the near future.

Did People of Lot devastated by Taurid Complex?
According to the scientists, although the Earth passes close to the debris of Taurid Complex once a year, but every 2500-3000 years or so, it passes so close to it that the chances of collision look imminent. According to the scientists, such a collision has occurred about 4,000 years ago (2000 BC) on the earth, which led to the fall of many early civilizations in Middle East, Europe, Africa and other parts of the world. Scientists have also stated that the human civilizations present in these parts of the world collapsed suddenly and ceased to exist forever in wake of these bombardments.

What is noteworthy here is that it is specially mentioned in the Qur’an and hadith in connection to the destruction of the people of Lot (AS) that they were destroyed from the heavenly stones because of their indulgence in a specific misconduct (homosexuality). The period of Prophet Lot (AS) dates back to around two thousand BCE, and the dwelling place of the people of Lot were the surrounding areas of Dead Sea (current Jordan, Palestine & Israel).

Another important discovery in this regard is that in recent years, huge impact craters have been discovered in the depths of the Dead Sea, which imply that the human civilization which was flourishing in this part of the world ceased to exist suddenly after coming under celestial bombardment. All these modern scientific discoveries corroborate the authenticity of the Islamic concept of human history.

Footnotes:
17- Daily Mail, UK, 17 May, 2012.
18 – Global Catastrophes, Bill McGuire, P. 95-96.
19 – Source: Nasa.
20 – Global Catastrophes, Bill McGuire, P. 97.
21 – 21 – Ibid.
22 – 22 – Rampino, Michael R.; Haggerty, Bruce M. (Feb. 1996). “The Shiva Hypothesis: Impacts, mass ext., and the galaxy”. Earth, Moon, and Planets. 72 (1–3): 441–460.
23 – Global Catastrophes, Bill McGuire, P. 99.
24 – The author has written a separate article on all scientific aspects of the catastrophic destruction of the People of Lot.