What are the chances of a spaceborn object slippi[CONTINUED}

[Bob McDob]

ng past our detectors and killing everyone on the planet?

Just curious.

[Darth Wong]

ng past our detectors and killing everyone on the planet?

Just curious.

The chance of a serious impact is substantial. We've had numerous near-misses from asteroidal objects which we didn't pick up until they were almost on top of us. However, an impact large enough to literally kill everyone on the planet is probably unlikely; such an object would have to be very large.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

ng past our detectors and killing everyone on the planet?

Just curious.

Right now, really, really high. We've had several asteroids big enough to do serious amounts of damage come real close before we spotted them. Until we get some serious near-space surveys underway, the chances are pretty high that we could have an asteroid with our name on it headed this way, even as I type this.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

ng past our detectors and killing everyone on the planet?

Just curious.

Right now, really, really high. We've had several asteroids big enough to do serious amounts of damage come real close before we spotted them. Until we get some serious near-space surveys underway, the chances are pretty high that we could have an asteroid with our name on it headed this way, even as I type this.

And what is worse is that we'd need at least a few years of lead-time before an asteroid hits. Anything less than say, about five or so years, and we couldn't scrape up a response quick enough to deflect the asteroid from it's course.

[GonK]

The chance of an impact large enough to wipe out humanity is fairly large. But a more real danger is from smaller asteroids (about 50m to 1km in diameter) which while they won't cause global damage will cause massive damage on a local scale (try google to look for info on the Tunguska impact).

Here's quite a good site talking about NEO's (Near Earth Object's) and impact risk's.

Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazards

[Sriad]

...and even when we do that there'll still be freaky interstellar level extinction events to cope with, like neutron stars coallescing into black holes, supernovae and the like. But basically, you could die at any moment and never know it. Cheerful thought, no?