"Evidence shows that this has happened at least 6 times in the Earth's history." At least we'll have Pink Floyd for the next go round. Thnx to PLN for the link.

Comments

[cheripickr]

Volcanos can suck pretty bad, too.

[justcorbly]

Book your departure flights early.

I'm curious if there's evidence we've been hit six times by asteroids as large as that pictured in the clip, i.e., 500 km. The Chicxulub impact was by an asteroid or a comet in the 10 km, and it still ruined the dinosaurs' day and kicked off global fires.

The most popular current theory of the Moon's creation is that a very young Earth was struck by a body about the size of Mars. The Moon coalesced from the huge amount of debris. Presumably, the Earth also had some coalescing to do after getting clobbered like that.

[Jim Langer]

Cheery. Sobering. In the immortal last written words of Vincent van Gogh---"What's the use?"

[Jim Langer]

"NASA estimates that there are 100,000 asteroids orbiting dangerously close to Earth right now that are big enough to cause a problem, and the agency is only tracking 4,000 of them. We may need to solidify a plan of attack. On the other hand, there are 100,000 asteroids orbiting dangerously close to Earth, right now. And right now. And ... right now."
- HowStuffWorks.com

[justcorbly]

It's not the asteroids we know about that should worry us. We can plot the orbits of the known asteroids. A very few come pretty close, but unless something disturbs their orbits, they'll continue coming pretty close for a very long time.

It's the little ones we don't know about that should concern us, because they might catch us by surprise. Even something as small as a couple hundred feet could wipe out a large city. The threat is very low risk versus very high damage potential. Efforts to track and find new asteroids and comets should be adequately funded.

[Account Deleted]

Cool. I can listen to this and then this when I take off in my space ship to the next planet.

Or I could do this now.

[John Tasker]

Perspective: A 10 KM asteroid that hit the earth, discounting for the point that it would begin to shatter as it entered the atmosphere, at the very point of touching, it would be about as high as Mt. Everest.

The asteroid that hit Yucatan was big enough for part of it to be still in what we call "space" at the instant of impact(again discounting for its partial disintegration)

[liv]

I volunteer to go to space and blow it up with Bruce Willis & Ben Afleck

[Klingons Around Uranus]

I'm sure that after the asteroid hits, there will at least be 5 to 10 minutes left for bloggers in Greensboro to debate about who they should blame for this disaster.

They will have to decide if it was the Greensboro City Council, the Republicans or Democrats, City Coliseum Manager Matt Brown, or perhaps the Greensboro Police Department.

Hopefully, they will come to a conclusion before the earth burns to a crisp, as we know how important it will be to assign blame as the end of civilization takes place.

My only hope is that some of those curious red hot dogs at Yum Yum's survives the blast, although I am quite certain some of those apple pies they also sell will make it through.

[Spag]

My money is on the dreaded gamma ray burst

[justcorbly]

Shoemaker-Levy, a 2km comet discovered only in 1993, broke into several pieces and hit Jupiter in 1994, punching holes as big as Earth in the Jovian atmosphere. It was nice of Jupiter to suck it down its gravity well, but maybe the next comet will skip Jupiter and head straight for Earth. Hollywood aside, waht would we do if tomorrow we discovered a comet on a trajectory for a collision with this planet in one year?

[Roch101]

Get those porn filters in place pronto!

[Jim Langer]

Quit your jobs and spend every minute with those you love. Farm and share food. Laugh, 'cause there'd be only a smattering of a chance we'd survive, apparently. If you felt so moved, accept Jesus/Allah/YHWH or choose among your pick of other gods, and pray. If not, it's been nice knowing ya.

[Dan]

In a flash like Alderaan

[Jordan 1]

You have inspired me to adapt this project for my high school level design class.