Aa few days ago earth had a “near miss” with an asteroid when FO32 passed within 2,000,000 kilometers of us.\u00a0 At about 500 meters wide FO32 would have made quite a mess if it had crashed into earth at a speed of 15 miles a second, instead of passing harmlessly by.<\/p>\n
Well, no harm done as we “dodged the bullet” and it won’t pass by us again until 2058. By then I’ll likely be long gone or 103 years old and if I am not, I won’t be aware of much anyway.\u00a0 I guess my kids and grandkids can worry about that one.<\/p>\n
A direct hit?\u00a0 If you find yourself wondering what a direct hit by a 500 meter piece of rock whizzing along at 15 miles per second, you aren’t alone.\u00a0 Don’t forget that a big reason we, the billions and billions of people on earth, are here at all is probably because of that asteroid that struck earth and wiped out all those nasty, toothy dinosaurs millions of years ago.<\/p>\n
This short, if slightly irreverent, piece suggests what it might be like when, and they do say “when”, the earth is next struck.<\/p>\n
Or, more importantly, is there anything that we might do to stop it from wiping us out?