3 ms·
I was lucky enough to tour LLNL this year and saw a short presentation from this group and of course I asked them about the likelihood of an extinction-event as
by rib3ye 3y ago
I was lucky enough to tour LLNL this year and saw a short presentation from this group and of course I asked them about the likelihood of an extinction-event asteroid hitting Earth.
Their answer shocked me: They are already tracking an asteroid big enough to destroy an areas the size of Texas, that WILL hit Earth in about 140 years.
Equally as shocking: we will need to launch our planetary defense solution with 30-40 years lead time to deflect the asteroid in time.
- tetris11 3y ago(lazy comment, but:) I'm sure we'll nip this one in the bud like we have with all other planetary crises we've encountered. Also: likely they were talking about Bennu[0], which is about 500m in diameter and is frequently quoted as devastating an area the size of Texas. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101955_Bennu
- sigmoid10 3y ago>an asteroid big enough to destroy an areas the size of Texas, that WILL hit Earth in about 140 years There is no such thing. 101955 BENNU currently tops the special risk-list of potentially dangerous asteroids, with the latest estimate giving an impact probability of 0.037% in the year 2182. The only other candidate on that list has a probability that is even lower and and a timeframe of many centuries. https://neo.ssa.esa.int/risk-list https://neo.ssa.esa.int/risk-list