...of our place in it.
A 10-metric-ton (11 U.S. standard tons) meteorite exploded 18-30 miles above Chelyabinsk, Russia,
injuring 1,000 people and damaging 3,000 buildings. The meteor fragments struck unpopulated areas and left craters 20 to 30 feet in diameter. The Chelyabinsk rock was smaller than the meteor (the "Tunguska incident") that struck 1,500 miles to the East in 1908 and flattened a 2,000 sq-km forest. The Tunguska meteor in turn was less than 1% the diameter of the Yucatan object that is thought to have ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking
says the colonization of outer space is key to the survival of humankind, predicting it will be difficult for the world's inhabitants "to avoid disaster in the next hundred years."
Professor Hawking, as well as
others, think that human extinction will more likely be caused by humanity itself (war, bioengineered viruses, environmental catastrophe) than by an external event like an asteroid strike. Whatever the source of mankind's ultimate calamity, it behooves us all to follow Stephen Hawking's advice and lift our eyes to the skies, which may be both the origin of our doom and hope for our salvation.
© 2013 Stephen Yuen
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