Elon Musk inspires adulation and scorn perhaps in equal measure. There are many who are in awe of his success and his out of the box thinking, while there are those who dismiss much of what he says as being crackpot theories. Elon Musk has had his share of online skirmishes and his most recent statements about an asteroid coming for Earth and ‘nuking Mars’ triggered animated conversations.
‘God of Chaos’ 99942 Apophis asteroid is apparently a real danger to us all, according to this report. NASA has begun preparing for this event which will pass so close to earth as to be underneath TV satellites orbiting our planet. And this will happen in the next ten years warned the ominous report.
Elon Musk retweeted this. He took it and ran with the alarmist news. He added that if it wasn’t this one, another rock would hit the earth in times to come; adding meaningfully, that we ‘currently have no defense’.
In between tweets about Tesla’s solar offering and positive reviews for Tesla electric, he felt the need to tweet pictures of a t-shirt that asks people to ‘nuke Mars’. I’ll tell you why it is relevant to the asteroid story in a bit; meanwhile, it tells us a bit about the inner workings of the ‘genius’ mind.
This commentator told Musk to build a defence if he was so concerned.
The tweeple clearly did not take Musk too seriously. This Twitter user tweeted about his car being able to survive any alleged asteroid threat.
This Twitter user jokingly urged Musk not to worry; that his fictional worry would be taken care of by another fictional creation, the character Machete played by Danny Trejo.
Musk himself had appeared (as himself) in the film Machete Kills, and is seen here telling Trejo to ‘get the bastard’. This Twitter user decided to troll Musk with this film clip.
This tweet refers to Musk’s obsession with Mars. He wants to travel to Mars and feels that the only way that its inhospitable environment will support life is if we ‘nuke it’. He feels that dropping nuclear weapons on the poles will enable us to travel to Mars.
You’ll save us, joked some of the tweeple who replied to Musk’s post. Though others weren't sure whether Musk’s suggestion makes him a supervillain or a superhero.
This Twitter user seemed to share Musk’s concern. He posted a cartoon featuring dinosaurs... because according to one theory these creatures were wiped out because of an asteroid hitting the earth.
One commentator decided to post a picture of a time when Musk famously smoked a joint while on TV – perhaps to indicate that this is not a man whose words we need to take too seriously.
Soon after Musk’s alarmist tweet, NASA itself issued a clarification that there is no immediate threat; that in fact there was no such threat for the next hundred years. In the meanwhile, don’t listen to Elon Musk seems to be sound advice.
Another commentator asked why don’t we just nuke it in the air as the solution to the asteroid problem – because clearly Musk sees ‘nuking’ as a viable solution!
It would appear that we’re all safe for now – at least from earth-destroying asteroids – or until the next Twitter tempest in a teacup erupts.
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