Could Humanity be Wiped out Like the Dinosaurs?
CrowdScience
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How Scary Should We Be of a Big Meteorite Coming In?
How close does a rock need to be before it's classified as a near earth object? It has to be within 30 million miles of the earth's orbit. The good news though is that big ones don't fall very often. There are telescopes and satellites which are looking out for these things. And even if they haven't mapped all the orbits, they can pick up when a big one comes in with enough information so that we can track its orbit. We've found 90 % of them - but there're another 10% who could wipe us out. Are we talking about building a rocket and firing it into space? I mean, pretty much the plot of every science fiction film is
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