An asteroid is heading our way. If we collide with it, it will destroy human civilization and end life on Earth as we know it.
LONDON (Reuters) - A giant asteroid is heading for Earth and could hit in 2014, U.S. astronomers have warned British space monitors.
On impact, it could have the effect of 20 million Hiroshima atomic bombs, a spokesman for the British government's Near Earth Object Information Center told BBC radio.
But for those fearing Armageddon, don't be alarmed -- the chances of a catastrophic collision are just one in 909,000.
Now we can all be relieved except for those readers who play Lotto. If you play Lotto, and spend a lot of time fantasizing about winning the big jackpot, you should bear in mind that it is much, much more likely that this rock is going to wipe us out than it is that you're ever going to see that money.
The preceding has been a public service message from The Speculist.
By comparison, the cataclysmic Mount Saint Helen’s volcanic eruption in the early 1980’s was said to have had the equivalent destructive force of a ‘HUGE’ 10 Megaton blast! 10 Megatons is literally 769 times stronger than the diminutive 13 kiloton (kt) Hiroshima Atormic bomb; yet, only 20 some people died in Washington during the eruption and the ‘Whole Earth’ did not end.
One Ohio-Class submarine is 5,538 times stronger than the first H-Bomb, and the entire US missile arsenal is something like 160,000 times greater.
The 100-year potential for a sizeable (40 Megaton Tunguska-like) asteroid impact is also small by comparison!
Thus 20 million is a lot!
Posted by: Chris Eldridge at September 2, 2003 03:17 PMSo if we sit around and wait til it becomes a high enough probability event that the gummint starts thinking about doing something about it do we wind up with an anti-asteroid Apollo program that once the deed is done is no good for anything else and gets dumped in the trash again? Or do we get smart and use this to spur on an extraplanetary diaspora?
Posted by: JSAllison at September 3, 2003 03:30 PMThe diaspora sounds pretty good to me!
Posted by: Phil at September 3, 2003 04:56 PMAre the rumours true about a huge astroid hitting earth and wiping us out? And should we worry?
Posted by: Scott at January 1, 2004 06:58 AM