Elon Musk's space Tesla just might crash into Earth in the next million years - Global News | Latest & Current News - Sports & Health News

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Friday, 16 February 2018

Elon Musk's space Tesla just might crash into Earth in the next million years


Yeah, that one.

Well, three scientists just took a close look at the vehicle's orbit over the next million years, and they found there is a slight chance the car might crash into Earth or Venus.

Don't panic. The chance is pretty small — somewhere around 6 percent for Earth and 2.5 percent for Venus. And a million years is a very long time — our species has been around for only about a fifth of that span. There's plenty of room for civilization-ending catastrophes to occur long before the Tesla reenters Earth's atmosphere.

Besides, the car would likely burn up before reaching the surface.

The results, due to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, were posted this week on the e-print site arxiv.org.

The Tesla was launched into space Feb. 6 atop SpaceX's vaunted Falcon Heavy rocket; its only passenger a spacesuit-wearing mannequin named Starman.

Study authors Hanno Rein, Daniel Tamayo and David Vokrouhlický, all experts in orbital dynamics, emphasize that it's impossible to map out precisely where Starman will go as his vehicle floats through space. The roadster is drifting on an elliptical orbit around the sun that repeatedly crosses the path of Mars (though the two bodies are not predicted to collide). At its farthest, the car will be 1.67 times Earth's distance from the sun.

SOURCE :- washingtonpost

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