지구, 소행성 충돌 위험! 러시아 우주국장

■ 지구, 소행성 충돌 위험! 러시아 우주국장

지구와 충돌 가능성이 있는 소행성이 존재한다고 러시아 항공 우주국장이 말했다. 뉴욕 데일리 뉴스의 보도에 따르면, 우주국 국장은 아포피스 라고 불리는 소행성이 우리의 생명을 위협하며, 충돌시 수 백 만명의 지구인의 목숨을 가져 갈 수 있다고 말했다. 그는 이 행성의 위협에 대해 어떤 과학자 에게 전해 들었으며, 이름을 밝힐 수는 없다고 말했다고 한다.

The head of Russia’s space agency said Wednesday about an asteroid that is hurtling towards Earth. According to NY Daily News, Anatoly Perminov, the chief, warned that an asteroid called Apophis is barreling in the general direction of Earth.

"Peoples' lives are at stake," Perminov told a Russian news agency. "We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would ... prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people."  Perminov said he heard from a scientist that the 850-foot asteroid “will surely collide with the Earth in the 2030s.”

The Russian chief did not name the scientist but he suggested plans for knocking Apophis off its path that seems to have inspired by Hollywood movies; he proposed sending a rocket ship to deflect the asteroid off course. The article said he also intends to enlist the help of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Chinese. "Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have," he said. "The threat of collision can be averted."

Apophis is not new to astromers, which were spotted in 2004 for the first time. Astromers then estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth would be as high as 1-in-37 when the asteroid flies by 2029. By Hwang Aesol (csa919@gmail.com) (The korea herald, 입력: 2009.12.31)