The village of Saffron Walding in the UK recently felt first hand a close encounter that authorities believe might be of the cosmic nature early January 17th when they were suddenly roused by a mysterious boom that shook houses, moved furniture, and left the village searching for answers. And while it's still unconfirmed, authorities are listing a meteorite impact within the village as a possible culprit. And from there we can only ask if this is the latest example of a much larger occurrence yet to come. Will Earth be hit by a more dramatic series of meteorites or a very large one in the near future?
Residents reported to Cambridge News that the incident sounded like a tremendous booming sound and left many wondering if an Earthquake had just taken place. But as fire engines descended on the sleepy village and experts started taking readings, the possibility of an asteroid collision was listed among the verdicts drawn. And if this small village was hit by a meteorite, it's no surprise to many who have been suggesting we will be seeing asteroids in the news a lot more in the coming months.
The asteroid Apophis has been written about quite a great deal, and many are speculating it has the potential to have either a near miss with Earth or be drawn in by the Earth's gravitational pull and hit the planet either in 2029 or in 2036 and cause a great deal of damage to the planet leveling cities and generally causing mayhem all across the surface of the globe. But scientists are also predicting that it will miss the Earth on both of these occasions, although only barely. But many things are not accounted for, and some are suggesting if Apophis were to break away and hit something else as it reached its near miss with Earth it might have its trajectory skewed causing it to smash into the planet.
Of course the vast array of swirling astral bodies hovering above the planet is not simple enough to predict truly, and so when Apophis makes its next run near the planet many are suggesting the Earth will be in more danger than it has been since the Dinosaurs were wiped out.
Could smaller asteroids, such as the one that presumably struck this small village in the UK be a warning of more to come? Are we looking at a small slice of the end that will meet the rest of the planet? Or is it clear that the more we look at the universe around our cosmic neighborhood the more unpredictable it will inevitably look while still being quite safe? Only time will tell, but in the mean time there is a scramble to discover just where the impact took place if this was indeed a meteorite.
Meteorite strikes on the planet are not, however, rare events. There have been a number of meteorite strikes over the years ranging in how dramatic they were from the Tunguska incident to simple grains of dust that vaporize upon reaching the Earth's atmosphere. Usually these particles from space are not even visible to observers on the ground, but shooting stars are still seen the world over due to how crowded the skies are above our planet from both cosmic and manmade objects.
