The Potential Impact of Asteroids on Earth

2012
The Potential Impact of Asteroids on Earth
(Asteroid 99942 Apophis' Timeline: years 2013 - 2036)

Charles William Johnson
Please, note that I wrote this essay almost five years ago in April, 2005.
( For an update about the 99942 Apophis asteroid, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis)

Recently, I read an article by David Morrison posted on the 13th of April 2005 about the potential impact on Earth of the asteroid 99942 Apophis. The fact that caught my eye references the dates of the timeline to confront the cosmic challenge from space of an asteroid potentially impacting the planet Earth. The year 2013 is seen to be the year to create a control device technique, "activated 2013 radar acquisition". The year 2021 is the year to make the decision to deflect the asteroid. The date April 13, 2029 is close passage to Earth, when the actual orbit of the asteroid will be known regarding it potential impact. The impact date is projected for the year 2036 our era.

Many writers today continue to cite the Maya long period that says something significant will happen to the Earth in the year 2012. Besides the 2012 date, the Mesoamericans also cited the existence of Four Worlds or cosmic eras, which lasted 2028 years. Books are beginning to appear now about what the year 2012 may mean, now that other books have lost attention, which cited the years 2002 and 2005 as having been the potentially catastrophic years for the Earth. No one is talking about the year 2028 as far as I can discern. Except for considerations about the asteroids in our solar system.

The ancient reckoning numbers cited by today's scholars would point to the 2012 year and the period of 2028 years. And, the significant dates that are cited by today's scientists for the potential impact of the NEO (near-Earth object), Asteroid 99942 Apophis on Earth, are the years 2013 and 2029 of our era. There is an on-going debate whether the Maya period began in 3113 or 3114 BC or before this era. This could be partially significant for the distinction in the two sets of numbers: 2012 - 2028; or 2013 - 2029.

Obviously, this mere coincidence of numbers cannot be anything other than due to happenstance. The latter set of dates, however, are being taken very seriously by organizations such as the b612 Foundation (www.b612foundation.org), whose goal "is to significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015"; and, by NASA who is responding to that call. [www.impact.arc.nasa.gov]

One can only wonder whether the ancients had any inside information about the movements of the asteroids in our solar system. What comes to my mind is to consider that possibility. This leads me to question whether the ancient pyramidal structures that pockmark the Earth may have been set up as control devices for receiving asteroid impacts. In other words, is the ancient pyramid matrix, as Carl P. Munck identifies it, set up as a matrix of devices for controlling potential impacts from asteroids? Employing the words of the b612 Foundation out of context of course ---the case may be that the pyramids are there "to protect life from the cosmic environmental challenge", to protect against potential asteroid impacts.

To consider such an idea, brings to mind the possibility that the Great Pyramid of Giza, for example, may in fact be the site of the potential impact or projected landfall site of the Asteroid 99942 Apophis. According to the cited article, between 2013 and 2021, the people of NASA propose to track the actual orbital path of Apophis. In 2021, a decision should then be made to create a deflection mechanism by 2029 to avoid an impact by Apophis on Earth by the year 2036. One could suppose or suspect the possibility that the ancients knew of the actual orbital path, and had already mapped out the landfall site of Apophis, whereby they constructed the Great Pyramid of Giza to receive the impact of that asteroid.

Sound like a B-rated sci-fi movie? Consider then, the only means available, back then, during ancient times, to construct a device "to protect life from the cosmic environmental challenge" would have been stones. They piled stone upon stone to create a deflection device strong enough to receive the asteroid and disintegrate it through the shear mass of the pyramid posed against the mass of the asteroid. Or, could it be that the Great Pyramid is simply a marker, designed to last the trials of time that would assist future generations in identifying the landfall site of the potential impact of asteroid 99942.

Whatever the case may be, relevancy or irrelevancy of the Great Pyramid to near-Earth objects, such as asteroids, one can only hope that the Great Pyramid is never called into play to either prove or disprove such a thesis. For that, we need to learn how to stave off asteroids caught in the Earth's gravity pull. And, by all indications from the data released by NASA that may be sooner than later.

Home

Books

Author