In a far corner of our solar system orbiting quietly lurks one of the biggest threats to the survival of the human species. Somewhere up there is an asteroid with our name on it. Horizon: Killer Asteroids, BBC 2003
How much longer can the Earth’s luck hold? In 2001 an asteroid exploded high above the Pacific Ocean with all the power of ten Hiroshima bombs. In 2002 another blew up over the Mediterranean. ibid.
A kilometre-wide asteroid with our name on it: it’s known as 19-50DA. ibid.
All eyes turned to a small probe – the MIR/Shoemaker craft that was coming to the end of its long three-year journey through space. One of its main mission aims was to find out all about the composition of Eros – a thirty-kilometre-wide asteroid ... Secretly the team had a much more ambitious aim – no craft had ever tried to land on an object so small or so fast-moving ... It landed safely. ibid.
High above us out in space there are millions of very strange but very special chunks of rock tumbling between the planets. These are the asteroids – debris from an extraordinary event, the birth of our solar system four and a half billion years ago. But asteroids continue to present a threat to the very future or our planet. Horizon: Asteroids – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, BBC 2010
The more scientists have examined the remains of asteroids, the stranger they get. ibid.
Over 90% of asteroids are found in an orbit between Jupiter and Mars called the Main Belt. ibid.
Asteroid impacts unleash a trail of destruction far greater than suggested simply by the foot of the imprint alone. ibid.
There are 900 asteroids bigger than a kilometre in those near-Earth orbits. ibid.
The reason why ice in the asteroids matters so much is that it could help explain something that makes our planet unique in the solar system – our beautiful blue planet is the only one to have an abundant supply of liquid water ... It means that asteroids could have played one of the most important roles in creating the Earth we see today. ibid.
To the Italians the evidence all adds up: the unusual conical shape of the lake, tree rings, a forest on the lake floor, sediment samples, and the suggestion that a cosmic body lies beneath the lake. They believe it is most likely that in 1908 a massive asteroid vaporised in mid-air; somehow, one small fragment survived the fiery descent to Earth: its impact gouged out a crater creating Lake Cheko. Expedition Apocalypse, National Geographic 2010
12,102. An asteroid three-quarters of a mile wide would have created a debris plume and cloud of ash that would encircle the entire planet, blocking the sun for months and causing a massive world-wide climate collapse. Biblical Mysteries Explained s1e2: Sodom & Gomorrah, 2008
24,137. Asteroid has an outer shell which is hollow and surrounds an independent inner core which has a breathable atmosphere; sensors read no life-forms. Star Trek s3e8: For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
5It was a catastrophe of cosmic proportions. An asteroid the size of a city smashes into Earth. The dinosaurs and 75% of all life on Earth are doomed. It happens in just twenty-four hours, and is one of the most important days in the history of Earth. Ancient Asteroid Apocalypse
Scientists call it the Cretaceous-Tertiary or K-T event – the apocalypse of the dinosaurs. ibid.
A black line in the layers of sediment. A geological marker scientists call the K-T boundary ... One of the K-T boundary’s most distinctive features is the presence of unusually high concentrations of the element iridium. Iridium is signature of an asteroid impact. ibid.
NASA has identified and tracked some two thousand objects that might be a threat. ibid.
It is inevitable that sooner or later one of them will hit the Earth. ibid.
A child born today stands one chance in twenty of seeing a large asteroid hit the Earth. Samuel L Jackson, How Will the World End? Discovery 2011
Over one hundred tons of dust and rock bombards the Earth every day from space. Strip the Cosmos: Killer Asteroids, Discovery 2015
The Asteroid Belt – the Belt is two hundred and forty kilometres wide. ibid.
We have very good geologic evidence for the bombardment of the Earth by asteroids and comets in the past. There are more than one hundred and fifty craters like this one that we’ve found on the Earth. Professor Eugene Shoemaker, Lowell Observatory
There is no question that there are going to be big impacts in the future. It’s just a question of when it’s going to happen. Professor Eugene Shoemaker
The chances that we’re going to eventually be hit by a large comet or asteroid is 100%. Professor David Levy
Is 19-50DA the most dangerous rock in space? Dr Steve Ostro, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Once every century there is an assailant big enough to wipe out an entire city. Every fifty million years there is an invader big enough to wipe out entire species. The last big one was sixty-five million years ago – so we’re long overdue for our next big impact. Solar Empire: Impact! Discovery 2000
An asteroid only two hundred yards across would blast out a sixty mile ring. ibid.
Astronomers have calculated a very small region of space that if Apothis happens to go through that region then it will be set up for a collision with Earth in 2036. And this very very tiny region which is less than a mile across – a few thousand feet across – is called the Keyhole. Greg Laughlin, University of California, Santa Cruz University
What you really want to do is give it a big of a push. Professor Alex Filippenko, University of California
When Apothis emerged from the black vastness of space in 2004 scientists tried to predict its path. It was initially feared that Apothis was on course for Earth ... Apothis lurks in the solar system. Cosmic Collisions: Earth, Discovery 2009
On December 25th NASA raised the probability of an impact from Apothis to one in forty-five. ibid.
In the mid-twentieth century a group of scientists including geologist Eugene Shoemaker believed Earth had been pummelled by asteroid impacts in the past. Citing new evidence it was predicted there would be more in the future ... Shoemaker's research confirmed the impact hypothesis. ibid.
Apothis is still on course for an encounter with Earth on Friday April 13th 2029. But any serious risks to the planet have now been ruled out. ibid.
Chunks of debris that never coalesced into planets float around in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Collisions cause further collisions as impacts dislodge chunks of planets that themselves eventually crash into planets. Cosmic Collisions: Solar System
Comets and asteroids are essentially a shopping bag of ingredients for producing life. ibid.
These are rocks from outer space, probably from the Asteroid Belt. The Asteroid Belt is this debris between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Professor Michio Kaku, author Science of the Impossible
90% of the rocks in space are big enough to destroy civilisation. And it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. Michio Kaku, Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible s2e3: Deep Impact
What we could do if an asteroid was heading our way is going to depend a lot on how much time we have. Geoffrey A Landis
Asteroids tend to be rockier, metallic; and comets tend to have a mixture of rocks and ices. Mark R Chapman
Between Jupiter and Mars is a vast reservoir of rocky debris that forms an Asteroid Belt. And it is this ancient rubble that Jupiter our neighbourhood giant can nudge towards the Earth. Professor Brian Cox, Wonders of the Solar System: Dead or Alive, BBC 2010
Deep in space scientists spot something: it’s an asteroid and it’s heading straight for Earth. It’s travelling at phenomenal speed. But when and where it will hit and how much devastation it will bring are unknown. Now, deep in the Nubian Desert they have a mission to search for any remains. Asteroid that Hit Earth, National Geographic 2013
A fragile mixture of different kinds of rock. ibid.
Just how fast does an asteroid move? ... A typical asteroid impact velocity is fifteen miles per second. Phil Plait’s Bad Universe: Death from the Skies, ABC 2011
Its name is Apothis. We know it’s coming. We even know the date it could hit. But is there anything we can do to stop it? ibid.
Asteroids and comets are left over debris from the formation of the solar system four and a half billion years ago. ibid.
The world burned and the dinosaurs along with most species on Earth were wiped out. ibid.
I don’t want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy to have had the power to deflect an asteroid, and then not and end up going extinct. We'd be the laughingstock of the aliens of the cosmos if that were the case. Neil deGrasse Tyson
63 million years ago they vanished virtually overnight … an asteroid nine miles across … forty thousand miles an hour … north of modern day Mexico. The Day the Dinosaurs Died, BBC 2017
The team uncovered a dense layer of fossils right at this boundary line. ibid.
Starting with the biggest tsunami in history. ibid.
It was geology at hyper-speed. ibid.
Millions of asteroids churn through the abyss of space. Could one suddenly tumble towards our planet bringing about the end of the world? In Search of s5e22 … The End of the World, 1981
So the Near-[-Shoemaker 1996] mission was designed and conceived so it would actually show up at an asteroid, stop and be in close proximity to it. Secrets of the Solar System V: Asteroids & Comets, Daniel Scheeres, Curiosity 2020