We recently had a close call, and it turns out that the UK is one of the most vulnerable places on Earth, when it comes to an impact from a space rock. Experts there have created a chart showing which countries are most likely to suffer severe loss of life or catastrophic damage if a large asteroid hits the earth.
They have decided that the most vulnerable countries are Brazil, Britain, China, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, the Philippines and the US. The countries on the list are highly populated nations, where an impact would mean millions of deaths.
In the International Business Times, Anissa Haddadi quotes researcher Nick Bailey as saying, "The threat of Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity. The consequences for human populations and infrastructure as a result of an impact are enormous."
Scientists think that an asteroid impact 65 million years ago caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. When a rock 10 miles in diameter hit the Earth at 25,000 mph, it had the force of one Hiroshima bomb. We’re somewhat protected from this happening again–first by the moon (which absorbs many of the blows coming at us from space) and secondly by Jupiter’s gravitational field, which tends to push them away.
We don’t expect an impact to kill US off–we’re more likely to die of NEGLECT! Have Whitley and Anne fended off so many attacks over the years, only to die from neglect today? Don’t let that happen: Subscribe today!
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