Hope Springs Eternal: Comet May Wipe Us Out in 2085

[Tuckerfan]

Of course, it’ll probably miss us, damnit!

A comet has been added to the list of potentially threatening near-Earth objects maintained by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Comet Catalina 2005 JQ5 is the largest - and therefore most potentially devastating - of the 70 objects now being tracked. However, the chances of a collision are very low.

The listing of Comet Catalina underscores the uncertainty in the knowledge of whether comets or asteroids pose a greater threat to Earth. Previous estimates of the proportion of the impact risk posed by comets have varied widely, from 1% to 50%, with most recent estimates at the lower end.

But comets are larger and faster-moving, on average, so their impacts could be a significant part of the overall risk to human life. And, unlike asteroids, they lie on randomly-oriented and usually highly elongated orbits. This makes them much more likely to remain undiscovered until they are very close to Earth.

[Hung_Mung]

Everyone knows it’s the one you don’t see coming that gets ya. Sooner rather than later, I’ll bet.

[Happy_Lendervedder]

A girl in college told me that a comet would someday kill me.

If she and this report are right, I’ll live to 110.

[Little_Nemo]

Hey, show a little sensitivity, people - my grandmother was killed by a Comet.

And then those bastards Elmo and Patsy wrote a song about it.