If an interstellar asteroid was on course to destroy the earth in a couple of months, would you want the government to tell everyone?
On one hand, you might want to prepare for your death if you are religious etc., but also there would probably be mass lawlessness and crime after the announcement.
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answers:
CarolOklaNola say: Yes, I think I would want to know. On the other hand, maybe not. If I was not in the impact zone, I do not want to die from diabetic ketoacidosis. That would be situation. I might consider committing suicide by massive overdose of insulin.
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Fred say: Right! We all could practice 'duck and cover' drills so at the actual moment of impact we could collectively .. kiss or @ss goodbye!
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Ronald 7 say: I would go out and get plenty of Skunk
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Raymond say: You seem to be under the impression that "the government" (which one?) would know before the rest of us.
If an asteroid -- big enough to destroy Earth - was only months away from hitting us, it would have been spotted by astronomers years before that. By then, it would be visible to most astronomers (including those amateurs with large enough telescopes -- there are hundreds of thousands).
And most astronomers would already know about it.
At least one astronomer would have published a paper about it in a scientific journal (in general, neither the astronomers nor the journals are controlled by any government). Which means that at least one journalist would have written an article about it, which would have been picked up by all TV stations and all newspapers in the world (remember Apophis?).
By the time "the government" understands what is going on, hundreds of millions of people would already have heard about it. It would not matter if the government decides to tell everyone or keep it "a secret".
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Interstellar means between the stars (an interstellar asteroid is one that comes in from outside our Solar system); we already have plenty of "interplanetary" asteroids.
The May 2003 end-of-the-world (which might have been a hoax -- especially if you have failed to die back then) was to have been caused by an interplanetary object (a rogue planet) that was called "Planet X" by Nancy and her buddies (the ones who used the hoax to scare gullible people). That Planet X was, of course, fake.
Do not confuse it with Nibiru, a fictitious planet (invented for a work of fiction, back around 1970) which is - in the story - a member of our Solar system.
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Starrysky say: I would like to be notified so that I could update my will.
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tham153 say: There are craters larger than 600 kilometers across on Mercury, The Moon, Mars, Callisto.
Interstellar or local, our planet would survive
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Grundoon say: How would the government know? trump is the first president since 1941 to not have a science advisor.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: For me, I guess there's two things... first, I don't think the government would *need* to tell anyone; there's enough skilled amateur astronomers that would likely be able to spot the object and plot its course (in fact, I'd wager they'd be the *first* to discover it in the first place...). And... I would guess in the interest of a 'peaceful' end... maybe don't tell people that far in advance - give them a few days, or a week; keep the chaos to a minimum. I don't think I'd mind being given a weeks warning; but to have to wait *two months*... seems almost cruel.
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Squidmaster say: 1/ By definition, ALL asteroids and "interstellar".
2/ Yes, I would want the entire world to know. if the ENTIRE world knows, the EVERYONE can work together to do soething about it. Maybe there is someone sitting at home on their own, with no contact with the government, with the idea that could save us all?
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