'City killers' and half-giraffes: How many scary asteroids really go past Earth every year?
phys.org
Asteroids are chunks of rock left over from the formation of our solar system. Approximately half a billion asteroids with sizes greater than four meters in diameter orbit the sun, traveling through our solar system at speeds up to about 30 kilometers per second—about the same speed as Earth.

What are the risks, by the numbers? How many asteroids hit Earth and how many can we expect to zip past us?

  • Sigmatics
    2·
    1 year ago

    So just a 1 in 20 chance for an undetected asteroid with 1km diameter that could cause global civilization collapse.

    This is fine. /s

    On a serious note, it will probably take an actual asteroid hitting a city for governments to invest more into asteroid detection and defense

    • TheObserver@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      Unfortunately true. The only way to get humans to collectively want to deal with space is a threat from space. Once life’s are threatened all of a sudden it’s a fast track to build defenses and bases to protect humanity. Honestly if it means allowing some humans to die to allow humanity to live longer than so be it 🤷. After all the end goal is to not go extinct.

      • Sigmatics
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yeah. Unfortunately then it will be too late.

        It’s not like we don’t know from evidence that there have been multiple mass extinctions due to asteroids

      • artisanrox@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Once life’s are threatened all of a sudden it’s a fast track to build defenses and bases to protect humanity.

        me: not so sure about this anymore 😒