INTRODUCTION

There’s a kind of doomsday feel to things right now - have you noticed? It’s not just that the Mayan calendar runs out on December 21st of next year. It’s not even the plethora of new warnings from astrophysicists, doctors and geologists about the possibly catastrophic events that are now known to be on the not-too-distant horizon. It has more to do with the zeitgeist, an undifferentiated sense that things can’t go on like they are forever.
And, of course, there are clues. Almost daily, items half-buried in news reports point to the Doom scenarios just lurking around the corner. Maybe you are too busy or too trapped in denial to notice them all, so this blog is here to help you keep track.

Monday, 7 November 2011

Something to Worry About Today

Alert: a huge asteroid is heading our way tomorrow, NASA scientists have reported.

The space rock, as big as four football pitches, will pass within .8 lunar distances—closer than the Moon. That’s a close shave in cosmic terms, and we hope the telescope boffins have got it right.

If not, the results of a collision would be a 4,000 megaton blast and a possible tsunami over 20 metres high. The dust cloud would probably cause an artificial winter that would decimate food production for anyone still around and who had an appetite.






This object will be back round in about 100 years.  Meanwhile, we have to worry about another big chunk of rock, expected in 2028, and passing even closer. There’s so much traffic up there these days that it keeps scientists busy making predictions.

Just hope they remember to look both ways.
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