Don't Look Up

[Hydra009]

So...if 2025 couldn't get crazier, now we have the potential for an pretty sizable asteroid impact
It even has its own wiki

1) Granted, it's in 2032.  So it's scheduled to happen just before the release of Winds of Winter (Sorry George, I couldn't help myself)

2) there's really only a 2.3% chance - a figure that's climbed in recent days.  But D&D fans know better than most that a 1 in 20 chance events happen all the friggin' time.

People are awful at understanding probability - tell them that there's a 1 on 93 chance of dying in a car crash and they say "won't be me" and tell them that there's a 1 in 292 million chance of winning the lottery and they buy a ticket and imagine all the ways they'll spend their fortune.  So here's the probability cone:



Anytime a big asteroid comes between the moon and the Earth, that's a really, really, really close call in astronomical terms. 

3) And finally, it's *only* a locally-devastating asteroid, not a planet-killer.

Let's say that it does in fact hit Earth.  Finer minds than me have put its possible impact area as anywhere from northern South America to west Africa to India and Indochina and of course all the oceans in between.  Let's say we're lucky and it hits the water.  Figuratively hits the water because this one will almost certainly explode in the air as a sort of airburst - which imho isn't any less scary than it just hitting the ground.

What sort of explosion are we talking about?  Just a little bang to scare the fish?  Oh nothing much, just the equivalent of 7.6 megatonnes of TNT.  No biggie.

In both the estimated size and explosion, this asteroid is awfully similar to the one that caused the 1908 Tunguska event, which was locally devastating and the only reason it isn't more famous is that it hit one of the least populated places on Earth.  Plus, it happened before astronomy had become very advanced, so it was poorly documented, only recorded by eyewitnesses and seismic stations after the fact.

This threat is so worrisome that China has set up a team to try to counter it

From what I've read about trying to deal with these sorts of situations, the best solution surprisingly isn't to train oil drillers to fly a space shuttle to land on the asteroid, plant a nuke on it, and fly away as the bomb goes off and Aerosmith music plays.  The best solution is just to fly something else alongside the asteroid for a while and the minor gravitational pull would be enough to veer it off course.  No Ben Affleck.  No nukes.  No tense scene at Mission Control.  Just boring ol' physics.

You could also crash something into it, that way you know for sure that you're actually changing its trajectory, which is a bit more exciting.

[Hydra009]

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My hillbilly cousins believe in God but not in asteroids. This is why I skip the annual family get-togethers. (That and 1,500+ hillbillies in one spot? Fuck that.)

[Blackleaf]

If video games have taught me anything, it's that this is no mere astroid. This is a giant egg, containing a massive and powerful monster. When it strikes, it will reshape the Earth and awaken the ancient gods, who will plunge us into a second stone age. The best we'll be able to do is pick the god we think will win in the great war, lest we become the victor's next meal.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I have a deep personal relationship with Ghidorah-sama.

[Blackleaf]

I'm partial to Armadon, myself.

[Unbeliever]

I have a deep personal relationship with Ghidorah-sama.

How deep, and how personal? 🤔

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Full fathom five.

[the_antithesis]

If video games have taught me anything, it's that this is no mere astroid. This is a giant egg, containing a massive and powerful monster. When it strikes, it will reshape the Earth and awaken the ancient gods, who will plunge us into a second stone age. The best we'll be able to do is pick the god we think will win in the great war, lest we become the victor's next meal.

???

[Dark Lightning]

^ At least it isn't the game where the asteroids are invisible.

[Unbeliever]

I remember Asteroids! It wasn't my absolute favorite, but it was close. My favorite was Tron, because it was several games in one.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anybody remember "Chopper"? Table game where you flew through a series of caves and shit. 1980s-ish.

[Blackleaf]

???

[Unbeliever]

Anybody remember "Chopper"? Table game where you flew through a series of caves and shit. 1980s-ish.

No, but I remember a game called F-22, in which you flew an (you guessed it) F-22.
It was really easy to win against the enemy, just by flying straight up toward the sun, so that their heat-seeking missiles couldn't find you, then, at the top of your arc, you flip 180 degrees and fly straight down at them and destroy them all. Then you only have choppers and ground-targets to deal with, and they were super easy, barely an inconvenience.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The wire-frame tank game was ... odd.