I hope you’re sitting down for this. Currently, there is no plan in place to deal with the possibility of an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. (Where are our tax dollars going anyway?) The impact could kill millions – or even wipe out the human race. And don’t think it couldn’t happen. An asteroid hit Siberia in 1908 with the force of a nuclear explosion. And many believe a similar event killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Of course, the odds are… well, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning while buying a winning lottery ticket.
Nevertheless, a group of scientists – the International Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation – is worrying about these sorts of things so you don’t have to. They’re lobbying the United Nations to coordinate asteroid emergency plans. This could mean sending spacecraft to knock an asteroid off course (a la the action movies Armageddon Or, if necessary, evacuating millions in the impact zone.
(Source: Associated Press)
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