Have you heard of 4581 Asclepius? How about 1566 Icarus? Probably not. Not like knowing their names could help you anyway. They are giant rocks in orbit around the earth. Each one is at least 1/2 a mile across and could cause the mass extinction of all life on the planet if they happened to give the Earth a kiss. We probably get a near miss from one of these Near Earth Objects once every 2-3 years.

So far we’ve found well over 4,000 rocks in orbit that could annihilate all life. Finding them is step one. We know there have been several asteroid impacts in history and there will be several more. We have found one rock that will hit us in about 800 years. Plenty of time to develop a defense plan before 1950 DA will have a 1/300 chance of killing us all.

If you watch the science news you’ve probably seen the name 99942 Apophis. It was going to hit the Earth. But then it wasn’t. They found it 3 days after it could’ve destroyed life the first time. Scientists (yes, all of them) have decided that Apophis will never collide with the Earth but that could be revised any number of times. Now people are looking at ways to divert asteroids. I’m personally in favor of a kinentic impact strategy. What is your favorite method?

The world could end tomorrow and we are helpless to stop it. All the more reason to live everyday like it’s your last, or at least stock up your bomb shelter for the apocalypse!