I’m going all in on the potential straight.
Risk is probability times consequence. Focusing on the odds without considering the second half of the equation is stupid.
Is it wrong to hope it hits us?
Yeah, because at best it just splashes in the ocean, worst it hits a city and causes mass suffering as thousands die from the impact and fallout. It's not going to end any suffering
With more data collected over time, the chance has already been reduced to 0.28% https://blogs.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/2025/02/20/additional-observations-continue-to-reduce-chance-of-asteroid-impact-in-2032/
Everyone saying "they can evacuate" clearly doesn't remember how bad the covid response was.
There will be anti-space conspiracy theorists. The ownership class would demand people continue working until the last possible minute (and beyond). It would be politicized, because some people are unbelievably stupid, cruel, and selfish, and enough people are so stupid they'll buy in.
Now, if we could make the meteor fall on a location occupied solely by the people who don't believe in science...
At least "crushed by asteroid" is not contagious.
Look, it's really simple. Just don't look up. If we collectively ignore the problem, it won't be a problem.
They could make a movie about that!
Also the impact risk corridor passes through states that are poorly equipped for large civil defence operations: Ethiopia and the CAR are in civil wars, Yemen is in a civil war with the majority of the country under the control of an unrecognized government, and the South Sudanese government is quite week—being at peace only for the last 5 years
Everyone saying “they can evacuate” clearly doesn’t remember how bad the covid response was.
or not paying attention to political winds welcoming the evacuees.
It would make sense to have a more cooperative world, even if cooperation involves "victims" compensating those able to protect them. Hope the US can continue to contribute tracking resources, at least.
… that’s exactly what would happen, it would land on all the people who don’t believe in science.
If this happens frequently enough the Republican Party will just vanish.
Thankfully I live in the USA where we're totally safe because we reject science! But don't you try coming here for safety, we hate everybody else. You'll probably just be sent to gitmo.
Just don't look up, duh
Odds are low, but not zero. Still a bit of a nothingburger now that we've been able to successfully land probes on asteroids to sample their contents (and even send back video similar to images taken by Mars rovers). Strap a small thermonuclear warhead to an unmanned probe and redirect its trajectory - not a simple matter but entirely feasible.
Make a probe with a giant fuel tank and engine land on the asteroid then just fire away to push it slightly off target so it misses the planet. Don't need to destroy just alter the trajectory a tiny bit.
Don't even need a warhead. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) just threw the probe itself at an asteroid hard enough to affect its orbit.
Wtf, no, the way to deflect an asteroid is to send something near it while it's far away. Blowing it up just risks another smaller asteroid hitting us. Small changes in direction while incredibly fast away will change its path enough to be safe.
Don't give me hope
Yes, but the audience score is at 80%.
Outside of extremely extenuating circumstances, this isn't a worry. We already have proof-of-concept tech like DART to divert asteroids, aerospace engineers can use this to get governments to fund them even better, asteroid goes behind the sun for 3 years, asteroid diverting technology advances even further, in 2028 when the path of travel becomes more precise the chance of hitting us gets revised down to zero, and we've advanced our technology should anything more serious come our way in the future
yeah, we really don't have to worry.
With the DART mission tech, we can get our hit chances into the 90 percents
Gotta pump those numbers up
Backup is that we have a team of deep sea oil drillers go up there
Why are we trying our best idea second?
@OneTwoThree @fossilesque actually we want this asteroid to hit Earth. Remove one threat from the sky. Divert to hit in a safe place. This one is safe if it hit in a remote location.
"I'm gonna go all in."
this is my favorite poker sim
Some examples of very enjoyable related media that are not Don't Look Up include The Last Policeman book trilogy and the Netflix animated series Carol & the End of the World.
(There's nothing wrong with Don't Look Up, but it's the only recommendation I ever see.)
I won't believe it's gonna miss us until it gets to 95% likely it will hit
I see another one branded by XCOM.
I find the XCOM comparisons funny because the game actually tilts the RNG in the player's favor and people still think it's unfair
https://www.giantbomb.com/xcom-2/3030-49817/forums/xcom-2-is-un-fair-1792143/
It was nice knowing yall
Well it would still have an impact energy less than that of tsar bomba, and probably just hit an ocean.
The sad thing is that according to Scott Manley video the areas it can hit are equatorial Africa or South of India, so lot of countries will try to ignore it
Until those countries start planning a meteor re route, which if done improperly could push the impact zone anywhere.
I begin to worry when I see this asteroid still in the sky and how it becomes gradually bigger
Gimme that flush COME ON
So what level of calamity are we talking about here? 3% doesn’t sound that low to me.
I recall hearing it was medium-ish nuclear weapon sized, but not wipe out civilisation size. Wherever it's heading would need to be evacuated.
That was a week ago, though, and I'm sure the size projections will be updated as we get more data.
This is correct. Current estimates place a possible impact event at an energy release of ~7.8 Megatons of TNT. Approximately 500 times the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Comparable to the Tunguska Event. This is accounting for current size estimates under 100m in diameter.
It is a very serious asteroid. The Tunguska Event could have killed millions of people. The primary reason it didn't was because it happened in the middle of Siberia. The primary witnesses to the devastation were local native groups who still lived that for out, of which there were few. It wasn't properly investigated for over a decade because of the remoteness of where it happened and the low priority as it didn't affect very many people. If that happened over a major city the consequences would be utterly devastating.
It's not K-T Extinction event level, but it is nonetheless quite serious.
If it is on a collision course we probably have time to do something about it. If we don't do anything about it it'll probably hit the ocean and it's not big enough to cause any kind of crazy mega tsunami or anything like that. If it does hit land it'll probably hit in the middle of nowhere and kill, like, 12 people, and if it does manage to beat all the odds and hit a major city it will be a major disaster, but it's not going to be the apocalypse or anything.
Well we wouldn't have to worry about global warming anymore
This size meteor would destroy a city but not have lasting planet-scale effects. Think Tonguska event.
Revised down to 0.27%
Just when it was getting good too! One of these days...
Alabamans are still marrying their cousins.
I can't blame them, their cousins are hot.
What are you talking about Shelbyville, why would we want to marry our cousins?
Yes! Eat all of our shorts!
An interesting thought is that if it actually hits, this might provide the impetus for some countries to get their shit together and get into space for good. Potentially changing the course of history.
