Chilling words. Hard to think they could have been applied to US this week when news crept out that a rogue asteroid (or other such heavenly body) came to within a 60,000 km strike of Earth.
Think about it people – 60,000 km. To provide some perspective, the Moon is approx 380,000 kms away. To parphrase on the “toasters” (love that term) from Battlestar Galactica;
“It has happened before – and it will happen again”
Although the stellar object in question was only small by cosmic standards (some 100 or so metres across), scientists theorised the damage caused should an impact have occured would have been similar to the devestation caused in Siberia in 1908 – the famous “Tunguska” event (see above). At most, approximate evac time would have been 24 hours.
Which may or may not have been a strike with a black hole, depending on which loony tunes astronomy school of thought you belong to (I mean the Siberia thing).
Peak hour on Sydney’s M5 motorway.
Seriously – I think my all time favourite image from Mimi Leder’s thought provoking “Deep Impact“. I can hear the sound of the ‘roid crackling as it disappears over the horizon – a truly great image from quite a thought provoking film.