All hail the new apocalypse: asteroid Bennu!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Evening Standard story here.

Le sigh.

We’ve been through this with Apophis. While the thing will create a big crater if it hits land and will be fatal for those in the vicinity - I wouldn’t want to be within 100 km of the impact point - in the greater scheme of things, it’s no big deal. It’s not going to cause the end of the world.

2

120 years ago the Wright brothers were just starting to get interested in flying. I fell reasonably confident we’ll be able to do something about Bennu if it is indeed a threat in 2135.

3

These tabloids are just ridiculous.*

For real info on Bennu, start with the Wikipedia article. Note that none of the projections of most likely impact windows start earlier than 2169. So 2135 is a number someone just plain made up.

And even then the odds are quite low.

But maybe we should put Bruce Willis into cryo-suspension just in case.

  • The Daily Mail seems to be running a new article about every week or so saying exactly where the Chinese space station is going to land. Look out …, you’re going to get hit! Right.
4

I really hope NASA is not running the only space program in the galaxy 100+ years from now. Let China save the world from calamities every now and then.

5

Okay, now that we are there I for some reason find something hilarious about that one big bolder sticking off the surface. We should name it Beak Rock.

6

Taking the more philosophical view, by when that becomes an actual risk, it will not matter where the heck you or I are placed, as the world will have ended for us some time before.