Is a meteor or asteroid hitting the earth and causing a major problem for me or other people a real threat? What is the chance that I or others can get hurt?
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No, it’s nothing you should be worried about.
The Earth is constantly being bombarded with rocks and most of them burn up in the atmosphere way above our heads and will never cause any harm.
A few rocks make it down to the ground, but the chances of being hit by one is basically non-existent, and these are typically very very small.
However if a really big asteroid were to collide with the Earth it would be very bad. But that is also very unlikely and even if it were to happen it would be so catastrophical that there is no use worrying about it.
An asteroid big enough could easily wipe out an entire city and if you happen to be in that city there’s nothing you can do anyway, it would be comparable to a nuclear strike, which is probably more likely to happen.
An even bigger asteroid could wipe out humanity and most of the life on the planet, just like with the dinosaurs. Again, if that were to happen theres literally nothing you could do so there’s no point in worrying about it either. Also this is extremely unlikely.
However astronomers around the globe are currently tracking all known bigger asteroids and other objects close to earth that could pose an issue. Although there isn’t much we can do if one of them are on a collision course with Earth, but we would at least know about it.
In short there are a lot more common stuff you should worry about. You are far more likely to be in a car accident or slip and fall in your bathtub. So make sure to always wear a seatbelt, drive safe and be careful when getting in and out of your tub (if you have one).
You can read more about it in this [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event)
its a potentially existential problem that we won’t be able to do anything about (with current technology.)
its a good reason for colonizing other planets (as stephen hawking pointed out.)
but worrying about it seems a little silly to me unless the current existential problems that we have full control over (pandemics, climate change, nuclear terrorism) have all been handled.
The dinosaurs say yes, it’s a real threat….
But events on that scale happen extremely rarely (millions of years) and there is nothing you can do about it anyway so why worry?
A major problem? No. Small scale impacts happen on the timescale of once per thousands of years, and that would be just a local problem. Our orbital path is pretty much cleared, so large scale impacts that would be a problem for everyone happen on the timescale of millions of years.
The straight answer: Yes. It is absolutely a threat. But an astronomically unlikely one. Up there in the teir of being struck by lightning, dying in a commercial plane crash, or being bitten by a shark at a beach. Saying they *might* happen is laughable, but saying they *can’t* happen is simply incorrect.
The advice answer: Don’t pay it any mind. You don’t let the fear of being struck by lightning even on a clear day prevent you from going outside, do you? You don’t have any agency in controlling whether this will occur. Very smart people have formed a committee on this and determined as much. There’s nothing we can do. So, to suffer in worry about isomething you cannot affect would be needlessly crippling to your mental health.
I wouldn’t worry about it, there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.
Literally tons of meteors enter earth’s atmosphere every year. Most are so small nobody even sees them. Others just burn up in the atmosphere harmlessly and make a brief light show. A very small number will impact the earth with minimal damage (mostly in the ocean because that’s most of earth’s surface). While large meteorites have impacted the ground and caused global devastation in the past, and it *will* happen again, you’re talking about something that happens once every several million years. So the probability of it happening in your lifetime is next to nothing. It’s not worth worrying about. Almost everything that can kill you is more likely to do so than a meteorite impact.
And, the world does have scientific efforts to track and look for large meteors that cross earth’s orbit. So, there *are* people trying to prevent the next big one.
No because you cannot do anything about it personally. But yes because an asteroid or comet big enough to cause major damage would be detectable years or decades before it hits, and maybe it could be diverted away.
Also yes because the odds of dying from an asteroid or comet are not that different than the odds of dying from other things that people worry about like tornadoes, lightning, earthquakes, avalanches, or dog……..
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/02/160209-meteorite-death-india-probability-odds/
Don’t worry, the Yellowstone volcano erupting is much more likely to cover the earth in ash and block out the Sun than an asteroid impact.
As a species? Yes. As an individual? Not likely. Most burn up in the atmosphere and don’t even reach the ground. Quite rare are ones like in Russia in 2013, 20m across. It caused an explosion but even then people were injured from the broken glass from the sonic boom not the meteor itself.
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