Posted on 09/30/2021 8:38:27 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
For thousands of years, the most consistent, spectacular meteor shower has been the Perseids, created by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. At its incredibly large size (26 kilometers across) and speed, it contains nearly 30 times the energy of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs... If Jupiter — which it also passes by — gives it just the slightest gravitational kick, it could be flung into the Sun, ejected from the Solar System, or hurtled directly into our world. If this were to happen, and it's a real possibility some 2400 years from now, it would mark the largest mass extinction our world has seen in hundreds of millions of years...
First, the good news... It last entered the inner Solar System in December of 1992, and won't do so again until 2126. We'll get a close pass (within 1,000,000 miles) in 3044, but it ought to miss us. In fact, its next 2,000+ years of orbits are mapped out incredibly well, and the Earth is 100% safe until at least 4479, when it will come quite close to Earth once again. Even then, there's still a 99.9999% chance it will miss us.
But... Each orbit contains, on average, a 0.000002% probability of the comet hitting Earth. This might seem small, but it's six times greater than your odds of winning the Powerball. Only in this case, it would be the ultimate cosmic loss. Comet Swift-Tuttle is 26 kilometers in diameter, making it at least 260% the width of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, and it moves at four times the speed that the dinosaur-killer moved at whenever it crosses Earth's orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Heh... sounds like the perfect tax... and 100% voluntary... I used to work with a lot of deadwood (I fit right in there) and one of the common sayings (along with "I don't mind the heat, but this humidity!") was to the effect that they never play the lottery, because it's a waste of money (West Michigan speaks) -- unless the jackpot got really high. Made no sense, still makes no sense. :^)
Not what the fossil record says. extinction following KT boundary event estimated to take 8000 to 12000 years to complete
They were dying out before the asteroid.
I still prefer murder hornets.
Hard to ignore that potential 450,000,000% return when your almost guaranteed 100% loss is only $1.
LOL
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