Are asteroids going to wipe us out?

Most of you have seen the film “Armageddon” starring Bruce Willis along with a delightful cast of colorful characters working in the oil industry who saved the planet from an asteroid impact by flying to it and blowing it up.

There’s a lot of humbug surrounding asteroids and impact threats posed by them and due to the excitement of the recent asteroid DA-14 passing (150 feet, 45 meters in diameter) there’s a lot of speculation if something of that magnitude will hit Earth and wipe out the human race entirely.

Out of all the humbug that’s out there scaring people with end of the world scenarios and religious dogmatic interpretations of threats to convince people of some sort of rapture occurring, this scare actually does hold some merit. We have a very good reason to be concerned about asteroids hitting us. After all, an asteroid really helped wipe out the dinosaurs, there was multiple factors that caused their extinction but it certainly would not  have occurred when it did without the asteroid.

According to Space.com there are approximately 4,700 potentially dangerous asteroids that orbit near Earth.

I know you’re probably in a state of panic and sweating profusely so allow me to ease your worries.

The average amount of time for an 

asteroid capable of global disaster would hit us on average every 1,000 centuries. Comets of the same scale hit even less frequently every 5,000 centuries.

The earliest risk we have could take place in the year 2036 and scientists have been able to predict the asteroids trajectory and have confirmed that it will not hit Earth. If an asteroid were going to threaten Earth, we would be given several years notice and with certainty be able to predict that it is actually going to hit us, we will have that amount of time to figure out how to keep it from doing so.

They will not be sending anyone, especially Bruce Willis to an asteroid to blow it up. It would send a million smaller pieces crashing down to Earth which could potentially cause more damage. 

Scientists would send a craft into space to basically “push” the asteroid out of its trajectory. They are actually already working on this problem and NASA intends to send astronauts to land on an asteroid where they will do a lot of research on various things but one of those things would be to learn more about them so we can prevent disaster in the future.

Hypothetical Scenario:

Let’s say in 75 years there is an asteroid headed for Earth and we are not able to push it out of the way, it would most likely land in the Pacific Ocean. This would cause a massive rush of tidal waves that would go over the coastline by 100-150 ft or so, the tides would recede and be pushed back in a series of tidal waves going over the same spot multiple times, receding more and more each time.  It would surely devastate the coastline. With that kind of long term notice, we could safely evacuate all of the empty million dollar Malibu homes. 

Here’s some statistics for comparison,

Approximately every 13 minutes a human being dies from an automobile crash. 

So you are probably NOT going to die from an asteroid collision.

So next time you hear about some Mayan prophecy or end of the world rapture concerning asteroids impacting Earth, be skeptical.

On a lighter note, asteroids don’t have to be disliked and feared, they’re actually delightful cosmic bodies. Asteroids might be the last saving grace while Earth’s resources become more scarce and depleted. There are currently two privately owned companies, engineering and designing methods to which we will mine asteroids for water, precious metal, and other natural energy.

Watch the video below from Planetary Resources.