Asteroids! The Doom We're Best At
About this episode
The episode explores the threat of asteroids and humanity's potential solutions to mitigate this danger.
You probably knew an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, but it was so much worse than that. Asteroids and other space rocks have been the most destructive forces ever to hit Earth, yielding mass extinctions (and the moon). And yet! Of all the possible dooms this show has explored so far, asteroids may be the one humanity is closest to beating. Ben Bradford explores why — and traces how — including the astronomers who first grasped the threat, the questionable Hollywood solutions of Deep Impact and Armageddon, and a zany but very real plan to seek out dangerous space rocks, and punch them. Guest: Cristina Thomas, professor at Northern Arizona University and leader of the DART Observations Working Group Support Are We Doomed? , get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/ Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy
People in this episode
Host: Ben Bradford
Guest: Cristina Thomas
Topics covered
- asteroids
- mass extinctions
- space rocks
- astronomy
- Hollywood solutions
- DART Observations
Keywords
- asteroids
- mass extinctions
- DART
- astronomy
- Deep Impact
- Armageddon
- space rocks
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Northern Arizona University, NPR Network
Books & works: Deep Impact, Armageddon
More episodes of Are We Doomed?
- Can "Scams" Be a Doom?
- Just a Minor Sun Explosion
- The Everything Vaccine
- What Ever Happened to the Ozone Hole?
- More Nukes!
- Did AI Just Escape?
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