Apparently, one killed the dinosaurs. Could one kill humanity, too?

Today we’re investigating asteroids, and whether or not one of these giant hunks of space rock could obliterate our iPhones, sports cars, celebrities and, oh, and our very existence.

How likely is it that an asteroid will strike Earth?

Short answer: 100% likely.

Long answer: But that doesn’t mean we’ll be wiped out.

According to NASA, thousands of rocky chunks enter Earth’s atmosphere every single day. The thing is, though, they are typically tiny little things – grains of sand, or space pebbles – and they burn up upon entry. NASA goes on to say that most stones up to about 10 metres in diameter will be blown up when they hit the atmosphere.

But what if it’s 10 m or larger? Well, NASA says that a rock this size would have the same kinetic energy about about five Hiroshima-sized nuclear warheads. Of course this is super dangerous, but these meteors typically break up, which means only smaller specks actually strike the ground. Still, this is typically enough to cause damage to the ground and structures, although most rocks fall in remote areas like Antarctica or the ocean – no modern human has died from being hit by a meteor.

How likely is a civilisation-destroying asteroid?

If an asteroid were larger than, say, 1-2 kilometres, it would be enough to degrade our atmosphere and cause wide-spread catastrophe, concluded a working group by NASA’s Dr David Morrison. A rock of 5 km or larger would be enough to cause mass extinction.

But none of this is very likely…

Asteroids large enough to destroy Earth do exist, and some of them even exist in our solar system, but as astrophysicist at Harvard University Avi Loeb told Science Mag, “they’re not heading in our direction.”

NASA stated that it has not detected any civilisation-threatening asteroids heading in our direction at this time. This means no object large enough to obliterate humanity will hit Earth in the next several hundred years.

So that’s nice. None of us here will be around to see it if it does actually happen. Sounds good to me!

If you’d like to read more of Duncan P. Pacey’s work, check out his website at www.duncanppacey.com, or follow him on social media by clicking the buttons below!