Name: Alex A Cain
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
With all of that stuff crashing into Jupiter, should we be afraid that it
will happen to us too?
Replies:
Yes, it could happen to the Earth and certainly has happened in the past.
There was a big explosion in Siberia about a hundred years ago that was due
to a fairly small meteor or asteroid; There have been mass extinctions of
much plant and animal life on the surface of the Earth that many scientists
think were caused by an impact with a large meteor or comet (the dinosaurs
65 million years ago is the best known example). Many astronomers think we
should be spending much money on discovering and tracking "near earth orbit"
objects that might hit the earth someday. The problem is that most people
do not want to spend money to keep us safe from something that MIGHT happen
only once every million years.
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