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Reminder: The *average* bolide impact velocity at Earth is 20 km/s. That's five seconds from the Kármán line to the ground. There's no slow movement of an asteroid through the sky, giving you enough time to say goodbye to your loved ones. One moment you're alive, the next you're on fire.

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

That's the *average* speed. Some impactors will be slower, others faster. Comets are probably going to be faster than asteroids. For a sufficiently high speed, the lithosphere will become molten.

17/10/26, 10:27 pm0 reposts33 likes

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

To be clear, I don't spend any time worrying about something smashing into us. (There's lots of other things to be worried about.) I just don't want you to think that we'd have any time to watch the thing enter the atmosphere, because we wouldn't.

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

Also, the last time I posted a pic of a burning skeleton on Bluesky that came from popular media (Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru) it was hidden as mature content. I wonder how long this post will last.

bjkeefe

@bjkeefe.bsky.social

>> I don't spend any time worrying about something smashing into us Agree that there are plenty of other things more likely to affect us sooner, but I do worry, to the extent that I think it is well worth funding orgs like these. cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/sentry/ www.esa.int/Space_Safety... iawn.net

Hannah Dowling

@hannahdowling.bsky.social

This is terrifying. 0/10 do not recommend

Sagittarius A*

@sagastar.bsky.social

the lithosphere being molten is one of those "won't be MY problem at that point" things.