WEBVTT - It's Coming Right For Us 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:16.400 Forward Thinking, either everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:18.200 podcast that looks at the future and says, sir of 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.880 the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid kills is approximately 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.600 there's thou swy to one. I'm Jonathan Trick and I'm 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.400 Joe McCormick. Today we're going to talk about what happens 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:31.920 when an asteroid has decided to set its stony eye 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.960 on Earth in come and say hello, or in other words, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.159 what happens if an asteroid collides with us? Y'all? Is 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:47.320 that a good thing? Asteroid danger? Probably the planet killer? Yeah, yeah, 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.959 we have to talk about planet killers. But really, I mean, 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.199 in order for us to have this conversation, I've got 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:57.240 some basic, basic terms I want to define. So an 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:01.640 asteroid it's technically a raw key object in space that's 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.120 smaller than a planet. Boy, is that helpful? It's like 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:07.240 a hill. A hill is smaller than a mountain. What's 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:09.559 a mountain? It's taller than a hill. Though there's there's 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:14.040 some blurry parts right there. Dwarf planets are basically big asteroids. 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:15.760 Well that's the problem, right, I mean, when do you 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:17.840 get to the point where you I mean, clearly there 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.199 are scientists at NASA who do determine these things where 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.520 they've decided arbitrarily. Some would argue that a body of 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.520 a certain size means a planet, and anything below that 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.319 is a dwarf planet or asteroid. But yes, there are 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.560 dwarf planets out there that you could also argue our asteroids, um, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.480 quite a few of them actually, uh. And then you 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:45.640 know these can range in size from relatively small to ginormous. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.080 So that's that's the technical term until you hit planet size, 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.280 in which case then you're talking about an actual planet 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.960 or you know, uh, arguably some would say a moon, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.680 though some dwarf planets and moons are also asteroids. Uh, 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.960 you have meteor and meteorite. By the way, whether you 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.559 call something an asteroid, a meteor or a meteorite really 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.840 depends on two things. Where it is and what what 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.120 it's doing. So an asteroid is out in space, okay. 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.799 A meteor is burning up in our atmosphere, burning up 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:22.240 through compression and friction and some chemical processes that go on. 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:24.880 But these are shooting stars. When you look up into 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:26.440 the sky and you see a shooting star, that's a 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.400 meteor Uh. Typically they just completely vaporized. If they happen 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.720 to not completely vaporize, if some part of that hits 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:39.120 the ground, that's a meteorite. So again the definition depends 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:41.240 upon where it is and what it's doing. It's technically 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.640 all the same stuff. And then you have a comet, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.399 which is not the same stuff. Commet is an icy 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:53.000 body that releases gas or dust. Uh. They can contain 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.480 things like carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, and other chemicals, and 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:02.839 they have their own orbits, as do asteroids. And these 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.200 are the basic tools that we'll be talking about, the 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:09.320 basic elements things we'll be talking about this podcast. So 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.519 a comment or an asteroid on a collision course with 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:17.079 Earth could be bad news. Mostly depends on the size 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:23.119 and the composition of said asteroid or comet, because some 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:31.359 stuff will not necessarily cause a planet killing issue. If it's, 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:36.240 for example, more ice then I don't know, plutonium, then 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.160 well all right, let's let's let's let's put it this way. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.280 If the meteor or asteroid, I should say I just 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.440 defined the terms and then I screwed up. If the 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.720 asteroid has made more out of metal, than rock, it 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:53.000 is more likely to actually survive the pathway going through 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.240 the your atmosphere and actually end up creating an impact 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:58.520 on the surface of the Earth. If it's more rock 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.400 the meteor, it could burn up, but depending upon the size, 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:03.880 it may burn up and it's still coming in with 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.040 tremendous kinetic energy. I mean, these things are moving so 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.920 fast and then they hit the air's atmosphere. If they 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.200 break apart in the air atmosphere, that's still releasing that energy. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.760 So you can have what amounts to a nuclear explosion 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.360 over the surface of the Earth if it's rocky versus 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.640 if it's metal. So depending upon the size, that could 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.480 be catastrophic. Right, even if it doesn't impact the ground 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.080 and cause a crater, it can still cause huge amounts 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.640 of damage. And in fact, when we get all further 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:40.359 than the podcast, I'll talk about some examples of both. Now, typically, 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.680 you know, the Earth gets hit by about a hundred 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:48.400 tons of material every day most yeah, most of that's 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.560 about the size of a grain of sand. So it's 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.000 not like we're not like we're having you know, uh, 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.440 children's sized rocks fall from the sky on a regular basis. 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.400 It's usually stuff that's pretty small. And thus, yes, you know, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:07.000 I wait till I talked about how big the Tunguska 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:13.080 meteorite was based upon how many children wide? UM volume 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.680 gets really fun when I talk about, you know, using 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.760 children as a unit of measurement. Uh. It used to be, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:20.800 by the way, that my standard unit of measurement was 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:25.160 the Conquistador. That's a true story. UM. Anyway, about a 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.440 hundred tons of materials hits the Earth every day. But 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:31.440 when we're talking about big impacts, stuff that is causing 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.440 massive amounts of damage or has the potential to do so, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.960 that is much more rare. Right, we don't see big 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.640 events happen frequently. A large impact might happen every hundred 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.479 years or so. And by large impact, i'm talking about 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.200 meteoroids that are about fifty feet across or larger. That's 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:57.000 maybe once every hundred years. Then you're talking about huge impacts, 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.839 I mean the stuff that could and and you know, 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.400 wipe out an enormous amount of life, possibly all life 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:08.640 as we know it. Those things happen incredibly rarely. I 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.640 mean the last one that was uh, that impacted a 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.320 huge amount of life on Earth happened sixty five million 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:19.360 years ago, So it's not frequent, but it can happen, 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.880 and it has happened, sure, and there's hypothetically a lot 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.880 of them out there. Deep space Industries estimates that there's 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:29.719 some ten thousand or more potentially hazardous asteroids that that 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.400 are three or more in diameter, which is, you know, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.400 by far enough to wipe out the whole country, let alone. 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.599 It's certainly depending upon what's made out of and where 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.919 it hits, it certainly could wipe out a huge amount 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:49.040 of life. Yeah, you know, but remember space is really 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:52.159 big and we are really small, and so the chances 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.520 of this actually happening, like we said, yeah, like like 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.719 once every few hundred million years. What Lauren is trying 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.320 to do is make you feel more comfortable. But people, 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.040 I'm trying to tell right now, it's just a matter 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.520 of time, just a matter of time. Now that matter 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:07.200 of time might be millions of years. So you know, 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.040 it's not something It really isn't something to lie awake 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.840 at night dreading that the skies are going to fall, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.400 unless you believe in the singularity and you're planning on 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.640 living another few hundred million years, which in which case worry. Yeah, 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:20.600 then you've got to like a couple of million years 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.400 from now, it's going to be a real, real problem. Uh. 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.200 When we're talking about asteroid impact, keyhole really refers to 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.560 a gravitational window. Now, a lot of asteroids, you know, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.640 are well, they're all orbiting the Sun in our solar system, right. 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.440 The asteroids orbit the Sun similar to the way that 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:39.880 the planets orbit the Sun. That's the thing a lot 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:42.280 of people might not recognize from the movies. You just 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:49.280 see asteroids just kind of zoom vector just yeah, of 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.680 course that wouldn't happen. They might be in some kind 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.240 of irregular orbit. They're going to be orbiting the Sun. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.400 So in general, we can say that, you know, a 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.560 particular asteroid might have of an orbit which means that 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.600 it comes close to the Earth every say, seven years. 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:10.080 The Apotheis asteroid is one of those. So there's this, uh, 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:15.600 gravitational window and and it's it's called a keyhole. And 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:18.760 the gravitational window is usually the small area that if 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.680 the asteroid were to go through that area at the 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.320 right time, the Earth's gravitational pull would alter the asteroid's path, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.600 thus making it more likely or possibly more likely, that 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.439 the next time the asteroid passes through when it completes orbit, Yes, 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.800 it hits us. So for the Apotheis asteroid that I 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:43.960 mentioned earlier, Uh, there was worry that perhaps if it 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.960 hit this keyhole back when it passed by Earth, uh, 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.920 that it would then end up impacting the Earth further 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.760 down the line. Uh. I didn't do that. I didn't. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.720 It didn't hit the keyhole. But then there's the question 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:00.760 of what happens in mine? What if it hits the 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.080 key hole then? And the key hole tends to be 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.280 a pretty small window. And when I say pretty small, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.120 I'm talking about like eight D, which on the solar 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:12.760 scale is nothing. Right, that's just the tiniest of tiny 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.000 little windows. So scientists usually say there's like a one 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:17.760 in a million, or less than a one in a 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.400 million chance that this will ever happen, but it's something 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:25.520 that can happen, and thus it's something to think about. Now, 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.319 if if the if the asteroid had passed through that 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.720 key hole, we would still have several years to figure 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.200 out what to do. And if you I, I don't 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.079 know if that's just a number you tossed out there, 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.920 but a one in a million chance, well, I mean, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.800 if it hits our path every twenty nine years. It's 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:48.400 actually it's actually I think but yeah, sorry, Yeah, they 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.280 projected it out twice before us. So what so it 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:54.839 could hit the key hole in seven million years? I 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.360 mean sure, sure, I mean if you go, if you 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.000 go long enough. That's why I said if you if 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.319 you extend out the timeline long enough. It's not a 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.040 question of will the Earth get hit by an asteroid, 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.120 it's the question of when is that going to happen? 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:13.480 I would say, yeah, look at the surface of the Moon. Yeah, well, 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.480 I mean the Moon. The Moon doesn't have the capability 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.320 like the Earth does of of covering up the old 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.440 asteroid impacts. I mean, you see all the places. There's 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:26.520 also no atmosphere for the asteroid to slow down, yeah, 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:32.400 or break apart in um. Yeah. So it's over long 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.200 periods of time. There's a lot of risk out there, right, 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.600 So let's let's talk about the different factors that go 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.840 into these collisions, like the idea of what what makes 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.280 a collision so bad? And I've kind of talked about 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.000 it already. What's what the asteroids made out of? It's 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.880 how fast it's traveling, and it's it's mass, right, those 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.440 are the three things. So if it's made out of 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:57.280 metal and it's huge and it's going really fast, that's catastrophic. Yeah, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.240 if an asteroid hits the Earth, basically if I get 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.439 out from under it, am I gonna be? Okay? No, 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.280 it depends on the size. Uh Yeah. What I want 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.240 to know is what are what are the effects and 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:12.440 asteroid impacts you could have apart from just you getting smashed? Okay, 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.719 all right, that's fair. Alright, So let's let's say that 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:21.679 you're talking about an asteroid that's oh the size of Epaphus. 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.080 Since we talked about that before, Um, that would be 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:28.880 about equivalent if apophis actually collided with the Earth, about 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:33.040 equivalent to a seven fifty megaton explosion. So seven or 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.720 fifty megaton explosion, even if you are not exactly where 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.719 the little X is whether the meteoroid is going to 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:40.800 hit the Earth, and that little X would be actually 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.559 about like fifty yard diameters. Who you know? You Let's 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.800 say you're a couple of football fields away with it's 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.880 a seven fifty megaton explosion, that doesn't matter so much. Um, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:54.240 you're talking about massive impacts. Uh, And and they're two 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.160 like I said two different types as well. Wait a minute, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.120 how big was the biggest nuclear weapon we've ever or 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:05.360 wouldn't that's our bomb? Megatons? Was that so a seven 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.959 fifty megaton explosion? Yeah, fifty seven is the largest nuclear 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.960 bomb we've ever times, the biggest nuclear bomb we've ever made. 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.960 Now to be fair, uh, you know, you should ask 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.880 me really how big the eruption at Krakatoa was? How 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.760 big was the eruption of Krakatoa? Two hundred megatons? Yeah, 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:30.200 it's still affected the weather all over the world, didn't 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.640 Uh huh yep? And uh and a seven or fifty 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.080 megaton collision would probably affect the weather as well. Now, 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:40.400 if you were to compare that to say, the massive 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:44.240 asteroid that hit Earth sixty five million years ago, Apophis 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.560 has nothing on that because you're talking a hundred terra tons, 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:53.280 which is a hundred million megaton explosion and uh for 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:56.720 for sixty five million years ago. Uh, and that wiped 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:00.840 out sevent of life on Earth, so to in order 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:06.199 for you to get to an extinction level event we're talking. Uh, Well, 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.920 let's see, the the asteroid that hit our years ago 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:14.480 was probably about six miles in diameter, you're talking about 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.200 something larger than that that is going to require you know, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:20.760 you need something bigger than that to actually wipe out 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:25.480 all life on Earth definitively. But um, you don't need 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.640 anything that large to at least do some massive, massive damage. 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.600 And even if it's a smaller one that doesn't cause 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:38.480 global environmental damage by knocking dust up into the air 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.920 or that all nuclear winter thing that we talked about, Right, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.880 even if it's not that level, if it hits an 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.520 area that is really important to us in other factors, 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.160 like let's say it hits New York City, or it 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:56.040 hits Tokyo, it hits some major financial center, then you're 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.080 talking about a global crisis that's an economic crisis, not 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:01.679 necessarily an environment mental one. It doesn't have to be 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.640 an enormous asteroid to do enormous amounts of damage. It 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.160 just depends upon what kind of damage you're talking about, right, Um. 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.280 And like I said, the one that hit million years 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.000 ago that was mostly metal had made this enormous crater 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:20.560 off the Yucatan Peninsula and which is estimated between a 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.720 d eight kilometers and three kilometers in diameter, depending upon 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.400 whom you asked but a hundred eighty seems to be 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.760 the general consensus, uh that that's actually not the largest 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.680 crater on Earth that was ever created by an asteroid impact. 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.920 That goes to um the Rita Hort or Rita fort 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:42.160 Rather crater, which is in South Africa, and I'm probably 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.520 terribly mispronouncing it, but it happened two point two billion 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.960 years ago, and that was an asteroid that was probably 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.960 about ten kilometers in diameter, so close to that six 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.760 mile mark, that same one word thing about sixty five 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.600 million years ago, but it ended up creating a crater 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.960 that was three kilometer Why it actually the impact melted 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.240 rock when it hit the Earth. That's how how much 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.160 heat and energy was in that collision. And most of 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:13.200 the time, I want to put in, meteorites don't actually 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.480 heat up the Earth when they hit. They are, you know, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.720 at absolute zero when they're flying through space, and a 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.000 short jaunt through the atmosphere is not going to heat 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:24.320 them up that much. No, but the collision, the kinetic 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:27.360 energy releases such a huge and when they break apart, 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.560 they certainly can if you look at the Tanduska uh 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.240 meteorite or meteor I should say, because it actually exploded 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.600 over the Earth. That was back in nineteen o eight. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.400 This is the one that explode over Russia. So you're 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.480 seeing those creepy pictures of just somewhere out in Siberia, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:46.760 there's all these flattened trees. Yeah, that's exactly the longest 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:51.320 time people were like what happened? Yeah, that was an 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.400 asteroid that that came close to the Earth, became a 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:59.320 meteor and exploded, um broke apart. However you want to say, 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:05.400 uh above tangusca over in in Russia. Uh, the heat 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.520 from the explosions set fire to the forest, and then 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:13.080 the shockwave from the uh, the explosion and the asteroid 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.680 entering the atmosphere ended up flattening trees for hundreds of 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.280 square miles. So that's a lot of energy right there. 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.080 And clearly if they'd hit over a more populated area 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:28.120 would have done massive devastation to that population. So these 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.040 are you know, these are actual historical events. There are 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.600 some that are uh you know, there's there's the one 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:39.880 from fifty thousand years ago that uh that collided in Winslow, Arizona. 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.440 That's meteor crater. Have you ever heard of meteor crater? 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.800 It's it's pretty famous. It's not a national landmark. But 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.680 there is a crater out in Arizona called meteor Crater. 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.960 It's about uh six feet deep. It's the object was 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.080 probably about thirty to fifty yards across. Now that one 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:58.840 had about the energy of a twenty mega ton bomb, 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.000 and that one was probably pretty much just made out 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.800 of medal. And then you have one from October, so 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:11.680 fairly recent. It was a It was spotted by quite 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:15.240 a few people because that was when video camera technology 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.320 was really starting to become a thing. And it happened 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.480 on a Friday. Why is that important Because if it's 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.399 a Friday afternoon in and video cameras are becoming a thing, 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.399 a lot of parents are out at sporting events watching 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.879 their kids play sports. And in fact, that's exactly what happened, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.480 was that there were all these people who were videotaping 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.159 kids playing sports and then they see this fire in 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.800 the sky and it was this meteorite coming in and uh, 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.600 it entered, it became visible somewhere over Virginia. Moving northeast, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.439 a meteor rite landed and dented the heck out of 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.440 this lady's car in New York. It hit hit hit 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.440 the trunk of her car um uh or actually yeah, 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:01.159 the trunk of her all right, hit right on the 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.040 back bumper area. There's this huge dent and then you 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:10.040 see like this football sized piece of rock right there. Um. 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.400 So even that, like, obviously if you had been under that, 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.160 that would have been bad news. That would have killed 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.919 you most likely or at least hurt you really really badly, 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.239 depending on how it hit you. But that's obviously not 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.840 the kind of size that would precipitate like a even 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:31.520 a localized catastrophe beyond the catastrophe of man. I don't 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:36.040 know if my insurance covers meteorite impact. Um. I think 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.320 that falls under act of God. It may very well. 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:41.680 And then of course in in this year we had 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.639 the meteor that fell across uh the sky and in 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.159 Russia again where the dash cams picked it up and 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.000 a lot of people with cell phones picked it up, 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.440 and the shock way from that ended up causing lots 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.119 of damage, a lot of broken windows in the area 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.680 where the the media started to break up over the sky. 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.159 And did that actually touch ground anywhere or was it 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.480 just I didn't see anything about it touching ground And 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.040 there may have been pieces that survived. They're planning of 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.679 people who claim that they have a piece of what 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.679 it was. But then there are a lot of pieces 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:20.840 of the Berlin Wall on eBay too that looks just 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.040 like cinder blocks to me. But you know, your mileage 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:28.359 may vary, but at any rate, it's certainly was spectacular 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.239 and was caught on a lot of people's cameras. Now, 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.560 the interesting thing I think here is this idea that 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:37.080 it doesn't really matter. Again, it does matter, but it 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.520 doesn't You can still suffer damage on the surface of 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.320 the Earth even if the meteor, even as a meteor 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.359 not a meteorite, right, if it explodes over the surface 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:48.680 of the earth, then it explodes with enough force, then 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.760 that can cause lots of damage all on its own. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.639 It doesn't have to be this big impact. Um. So, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:01.080 so this is scary enough that that actually couple of films, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.480 as it turns out, have been made along the premises. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.480 Let's talk about some of these documentaries that were made. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:13.720 Jelliver jell Eversy Deep Impact. I did not I did. 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:15.960 I think I think I might have seen that in theaters. 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.119 I saw it in the theater. Yeah, what wait, what 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.240 year did that come up? Oh, what year was? I 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:27.960 think that was also the year that Armageddon came out. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.040 Beat beat it to the box office by like by 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.359 a few weeks. NBC beat both with their made for 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.560 TV film called Asteroid In It's almost like people in 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.159 Hollywood who have a project in development don't keep their 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:43.520 trap shut, and then other people steal that idea and 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.639 make the same movie. So a deep impact, what exactly 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.280 is heading towards the earth? So Elijah Wood looks through 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:53.960 Little Elijah Wood looks through a telescope and he sees 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.440 a comment and they name it after him. It's really 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.520 cute and and they're like, oh, it's gonna kill us all. 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.040 And it's got President Morgan Freeman I remember, And he's 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:11.199 just incredibly is that the character name? Basically, you know, 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:13.960 let's see what's his name. I've got the the plots 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:18.160 and officers here, President Tom Beckman ever, anyone who's not 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:22.440 He's just well, I mean it's funny because I think 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.440 the movie is kind of silly, as I remember, um though, 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.399 it's I think it's going for like a kind of 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.560 deep emotional gravitas um And they thought they could get 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.720 it with Morgan Freeman. It's like we just put Morgan 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:41.800 Freeman in the movie. Yeah, and I'm sure in every 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.280 scene he was in, I was just like, oh, tell 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.040 me about things, but uh, in all the scenes he wasn't. 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.359 There was ridiculous science going on. So so what was 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:53.960 their plan? Did they have a plan? Yeah, destroying That's 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.679 what we should We should examine these movies through the 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:01.639 feasibility of their plans, I think. So, imagine a planet 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.720 killer asteroid is headed for the Earth. Which movie should 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:08.000 we use as the script for how to save ourselves? Now? 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.879 Should we use deep impact? I'm not sure because basically 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:16.199 what they do is there is a spaceship up in 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:25.080 the uh space called the Messiah. Yeah subtle imagery, yeah yeah. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:29.119 And so what they do is they they landed on 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:33.119 the comet and some crew members they drill down a 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.479 hundred meters beneath the surface and they plant nuclear bombs. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.879 Well this sounds really familiar. Yeah, well we'll get to 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:43.159 you're just saying we're gonna be comparing plans. They're the 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:47.480 same plan on the second exactly the same. Um. So 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.840 they go back up and then they detonate the bombs 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:54.639 and its like it hurts their uh their spacecraft and 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:59.360 it breaks up the comment. But now you've just basically 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:03.000 got two comic fragments heading for the Earth. Um. So 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.080 the plan doesn't really go as planned. So then one 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:12.560 one comet fragment spoiler uh hits the ocean and causes 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:15.719 a tidal wave that kills everybody on you know, on 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:19.200 either side of the Atlantic on the coast basically um. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.359 And then the other comet is going to hit in 0:23:22.520 --> 0:23:25.119 Canada and create dusk clouds that will block out the 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.640 sun for years and destroy everything on Earth. Um. But 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.800 at the last minute, the people from the spaceship are like, no, 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:34.080 let's use the bombs we have left. I don't know 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:37.439 why they didn't use them earlier, but let's use is 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:40.359 only so deep joke exactly, Let's use the bombs we 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:43.160 have left to blow up this other piece. Good idea. 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:46.399 So they blow it up again and that breaks it 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:48.480 up into pieces that are so small they burn up 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.359 in the atmosphere, and they save the world. And I'm 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:56.720 sure I'm gets re elected after that. Probably probably depends 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:58.680 on where his where his voter base was, if it 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.560