Chapter 17: Meteor Torn Apart

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

When gravity pulled on an object from outer space, and the said object had a different gravitational source, it would be torn apart. The difference in their gravitational source was also known as a tidal force.

Using the same concept, it could be said that a tidal force was everywhere throughout the universe.

As long as something had a large mass, there would be a gravitational source.

The burning sun, the Earth, the moon, and the other planets were gravitational sources.

A tidal force would not be able to tear objects apart under normal circumstances. Take Earth as an example.

Earth was moved by the sun and affected by the moon. Tidal waves in the ocean was a phenomenon from the tidal force of the moon, yet Earth had not been torn apart despite being between two tidal forces.

However, the meteorite was different.

First of all, it did not have a huge mass, it was affected by the moon, the Earth, and the sun.

Secondly, it was initially strong enough to not be torn apart. But then the astronauts drilled along its center with the explosion. 

The core of the meteorite was unintentionally damaged when they cracked the meteorite apart.

The meteorite would be fine if they just left it as was when it was first discovered.

Metaphorically, the meteorite was like a bedsheet. If three people pulled on the bedsheet, the bedsheet would not be ripped apart. If the center of the bedsheet had a huge hole, it would still be fine. However, if the bedsheet had a hole in the center and three people pulled on it, it would be easily ripped along with where it was damaged.

Using the same concept, the meteorite separated into three smaller chunks due to gravity.

The worst part was, due to their lighter mass, they were easily captured by the planet’s gravity meaning they were now headed towards Earth. 

A meteorite crash was an insignificant event when it came to the entire universe. Earth was just a speck of dust.

Truthfully, some small asteroids and meteorites have crashed into Earth before. Usually, they would land in the middle of nowhere or they would be burned to ashes because of the ozone layer. This meant very few meteorites made it to the surface of Earth.

A human civilization with sufficiently advanced technology would have their ways to combat this kind of natural disaster, they would still find a way to survive.

What if a meteorite crash occurred in a civilization with less advanced technology?

One would not need to go back too far, take the eighteenth-century for example. If this meteorite happened upon Earth two hundred years ago, humans could say the same thing as dinosaurs did, “Goodbye.”

The steampunk era was not technologically advanced enough to combat a natural disaster like this. They would not able to build a sufficiently strong bunker.

Modern civilization had its limits too.

They used up all their weapons to deal with the meteorite. They thought the bigger meteorite was out of the way, but now they have three smaller meteorites to worry about. The presidents of the nations were all immensely pressured now.

The broken off meteorite chunk had not yet been dealt with by the Russians, yet now they faced three additional meteorite chunks from the larger one. It was like their hard work was all for nothing. Doomsday was impending and it got worse.

At a time like this, the presidents wanted to curse, “What the f*ck?!”

However, they could not give up and wait for their doom. They called an emergency meeting and try to come up with possible solutions.

“So far there are four meteorites incoming at 11.5 kilometers per second. They are expected to crash into Earth within a few hours,” said a scientist from the USA operation squad. The scientist reported to the presidents about the location too, “According to calculations, the meteorites would most likely crash on North America and the Pacific Ocean.

The scientist did not speak of the ensuing disasters after the meteorite crashed. Everyone had a rough idea of what would happen, they were facing extinction like the dinosaurs.

The priority right now was to stop the four meteorites.

At least stop them from crashing all at once.

“What can we do to stop the meteorites?” asked the President of the top five nations on Earth.

“Truthfully, we don’t have any solutions. We can’t launch a spacecraft in a mere few hours, that’s not enough time, we can’t even finish refueling one on time. Plus we don’t have any spaceships left,” said Britain’s president with a long face and a heavy heart.

Britain had run out of options, they had limited sources for a global crisis like this.

The President of Russia disagreed, he said affirmatively, “We still have something up our sleeves! The Russian spacecraft is still in space, we can use the twenty nuclear bombs to blow them up!”

Every eye in the meeting lit up with hope. It was their last chance at saving humanity and the last thread of good news.