Elon Musk Replied 'Game Over' to a Twitter Post on the New-York-Sized Asteroid Eros; Will the Asteroid Cause a Massive Destruction?

In a video posted on Twitter about asteroid 433 Eros, Elon Musk replied to a tweet implying that it would be the end of the world if the object hit the Earth.

Elon Musk's Comment on Asteroid Eros Video on Twitter

On Twitter, Massimo posted a video from Meatballs Studio on what it looks like when an asteroid of its size hits New York. The caption described it as the second-largest near-Earth object with an elongated shape. It has a mean diameter of approximately 16.8 kilometers, which is the same size as New York City.

Elon Musk reacted to the post, saying, "Game over when (not if) Earth gets hit by an object of that size."

Asteroid 433 Eros' Discovery

Eros is well-known for being the first asteroid that a spacecraft orbited and the first asteroid that a spacecraft actually landed on. Auguste H.P. Charlois and Gustav Witt, the director of the Urania Observatory in Berlin, independently made the discovery of 433 Eros on August 13, 1898.

On Dec. 23, 1998, the NEAR spacecraft made its first pass by Eros at a distance of about 2,400 miles (about 3,800 kilometers). The asteroid was smaller than anticipated, and the NEAR spacecraft discovered that it had two medium-sized craters, a long surface ridge, and a density similar to that of the Earth's crust. According to NASA, NEAR finally entered orbit around Eros in 2000, exactly on Valentine's Day, following numerous trajectory modifications.

Witt's finding resulted from a two-hour picture exposure that he made of another asteroid, 185 Eunike. The image he captured included Eunike as well as a 0.4-mm image trail, and investigations the following night revealed the object to be one with exceptionally high apparent motion in the sky. Adolf J. Berberich calculated the orbit of the object less than two weeks later, and it placed it well inside the orbit of Mars, making it the first-known near-Earth asteroid.

Asteroid 433 Eros Features

Eros is an S-type asteroid. It is the most common type in the inner asteroid belt. It belongs to the Amors group of NEAs, which cross Mars' orbit but fall short of Earth's orbit. NEAs are believed to be dead comets or debris from main-belt asteroid collisions, in contrast to the far more numerous main-belt asteroids between Mars and Jupiter.

About twice the size of Manhattan, the asteroid had the appearance of a lumpy and scarred potato. It is one of the oldest objects in the solar system, making it a rich source of information on the earliest history of Earth. It has 800 or so cousins nearby, which could put out the lights on Earth.

Can Asteroid Eros Hit Earth?

According to Sky Night Magazine, Eros will make its subsequent closest approach to Earth on January 24, 2056, when it will be 22.4 million kilometers away, or 0.14979957 astronomical units away.

Eros has traveled 14 million miles closest to Earth, so it is not considered to pose much of a threat. But because of its size, it's a wonderful area to practice getting close enough to asteroids to destroy them before they can strike Earth.

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.