[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Berlin_Freeper]

There was a volcano eruption 70,000 years ago that reduced the world population to 1,000 people.

[JoeFromSidney]

Nuking an asteroid without diverting it is a waste of time and nukes. The fragments will still dump as much energy into the atmosphere as would a hit by a solid asteroid. It's got to be diverted, not just blasted.

[muawiyah]

A meteor big enough to instantly boil off gigatons of water and blow it into Earth orbit, but far enough away that we encounter it only at great intervals.

Obviously great clouds of fine ice and/or water vapor could be moved about by Sunlight ~ and if large enough with enough gravitational integrity, they could be out there moving from one side of the orbit to to the other ~ which would probably get you a rhythm in synchrony with the Sunspot cycle.

[Jack Hammer]

On the bright side, we can attribute to this event the origins of the sport of surfing.