OMG we're all going to die very very soon and painfully

[K.I.L.E.R]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/space/10galaxy.html

Another galaxy is merging with ours.
A star might hit Earth and we will all die.

 

[Guden Oden]

It's much worse than that! A star wouldn't even have to hit us. It would be enough it came somewhat close to us and we'd all get steam-cooked/BBQ roasted.

 

[London Geezer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/space/10galaxy.html

Another galaxy is merging with ours.
A star might hit Earth and we will all die.

In how many millions of years? And what's the chance of a star actually getting close to us? It's much more likely that Bush sleeps walks one night, starts playing with the nuclear heads codes and launches 89 nuclear heads to the world's capitals (and starting a nuclear world war that will extinguish us into oblivion), thinking he's shuffling the shuffle...

 

[bouy]

I think more likely a star will pass by and disturb the Oort Cloud and send hundreds, if not thousands, of comets and asteroids our way. Wait, that's already happening now, cause the Solar system orbits the Milky Way like a Sine wave and it bobs within the Oort cloud and the Suncan draw in those chunks from the cloud into the solar system.

Science Rules!

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

So in my lifetime it's a good possibility that we will die from a comet/asteroid?

 

[London Geezer]

So in my lifetime it's a good possibility that we will die from a comet/asteroid?

More likely u'll die of: car, n.
As in, - accident, run over by a -, - bomb, and many other possibile car-related deaths.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

In Australia that's a very high probability of occuring even if you are a bystander.
Can you please tell me in plain English if it's a high probability or low pr of a comet/asteroid hitting us?
I don't know where you live so I can't really say whether your analogy is a good thing or bad thing.

Sometimes when I go to bed I have nightmares about falling off the moon or the Earth.
It's really disturbing but I'm shit scared of space and the universe when looking at stars, planets, black holes or other phenomena.

More likely u'll die of: car, n.
As in, - accident, run over by a -, - bomb, and many other possibile car-related deaths.

 

[London Geezer]

In Australia that's a very high probability of occuring even if you are a bystander.
Can you please tell me in plain English if it's a high probability or low pr of a comet/asteroid hitting us?
I don't know where you live so I can't really say whether your analogy is a good thing or bad thing.

Sometimes when I go to bed I have nightmares about falling off the moon or the Earth.
It's really disturbing but I'm shit scared of space and the universe when looking at stars, planets, black holes or other phenomena.

I think the probability of us being hit by a comet is 18.2

 

[arjan de lumens]

So in my lifetime it's a good possibility that we will die from a comet/asteroid?

Not really. Many of the potentially dangerous Near-Earth asteroids have been carefully mapped, with only one candidate identified as likely to actually do some serious damage - "(29075) 1950 DA", which is scheduled to hit or near-miss the Earth about 800 years from now.

If you're going to keep fearing big stuff, try volcanoes instead.

 

[London Geezer]

If you're going to keep fearing big stuff, try volcanoes instead.

Pfffft... volcanoes are lame...

 

[dantruon]

by the time the other galaxy merge with our, the earth probably have wings to fly away.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

I've seen several documentaries that mentioned that it is impossible to map everything and that a hell of a lot of things go past our notice.
We only map a very very miniscule percentage of what goes on in space which means there is a very high probability that a doomsday asteroid/comet will hit us.

Not really. Many of the potentially dangerous Near-Earth asteroids have been carefully mapped, with only one candidate identified as likely to actually do some serious damage - "(29075) 1950 DA", which is scheduled to hit or near-miss the Earth about 800 years from now.

If you're going to keep fearing big stuff, try volcanoes instead.

 

[nutball]

I've seen several documentaries that mentioned that it is impossible to map everything and that a hell of a lot of things go past our notice.

Documentaries => TV => media => make money out of scaring the shit out of people. TV has to be exciting, and the prospects of instant giga-death gets people excited.

We only map a very very miniscule percentage of what goes on in space which means there is a very high probability that a doomsday asteroid/comet will hit us.

The second thing doesn't follow from the first. The chances of being hit are what the chances are. Our knowledge of those chances are a *different thing*. Even the probabilities you see mentioned with respect to individual objects (like 1950 DA that arjen mentioned) are probabilities that represent the pausity of our knowledge, and aren't really related to the actual chances of a hit in any global sense.

Really to make statements like "we will be hit" you have to define time-scales. Will the Earth be hit by a comet/asteroid? Absolutely positively yes it will. But if that strike is in 80 million years time, who gives a shit? The longer the timescales you talk about, the higher the *overall* probability becomes. But looking further into the future has no effect whatsoever on the probabilty of us being hit tomorrow, or the next day. See what I'm getting at?

 

[zidane1strife]

Documentaries => TV => media => make money out of scaring the shit out of people. TV has to be exciting, and the prospects of instant giga-death gets people excited.

Yes, but they usually mention budget reasons, no one cares or assigns the necessary funds to do things properly. Sounds reasonable, and I'd hope most scientist would at most bend the truth a little to scare, not outright lie.