If a asteroid was about to hit the earth and destroy mankind, would you want to know?

Question

If a asteroid was about to hit the earth and destroy mankind, would you want to know? Keep mind that the only way you can know in this situation, is by the mass public knowing, and if the mass public knows, its going to cause mass hysteria and chaos. So..... would you want to know?

Answer 1

Hell yeah. Full blown chaos!

Answer 2

I think I would want to know. At any rate I follow Near-Earth Asteroid news reasonably closely through a number of websites such as: Asteroid/Comet Connection JPL NEO Page NEODys IAU Minor Planet Center Yahoo Minor Planet Mailing List I figure I would find out on those places if something big was coming our way. That being said I missed most of the flap about (99942) Apophis, well then it was 2004 MN4 because it was Christmas, I was on holiday and the news of the Indian Ocean tsunami was everywhere. I also didn't hear anything about AL00667 until a week or so after the "fuss". For those of you who missed it you might look up the archives of the Minor Planet Mailing List or check out Peter Birtwhistle's page at his Great Shefford Observatory. This object, discovered in January 2004 had an initial orbit that showed an Earth impact within about 2 days of discovery. This went unnoticed at first because it had been processed by automated routines at the LINEAR survey and the Minor Planet Center. Eventually someone on the Minor Planet Mailing List pointed out the fact that the nominal trajectory was an impact. 24 hours passed before LINEAR and other astronomers were able to make more observations which showed that the original prediction was off the mark. Part of this was due to greater than normal error in the first of the three discovery positions from LINEAR. Another part was that for such a short observational arc it is hard to tell the difference between a small object that is close to the Earth and a larger object that is further away. The impact trajectory represented the former case, later observations showed that the true situation was the latter. The object, 2004 AS1 passed Earth uneventfully at a distance of several million km and has now been tracked several times and its orbit is known quite well.

Answer 3

I was going to say yes, but then I kept on reading. You are right, mass hysteria is dangerous, so I would only like to know a day in advance.

Answer 4

Department of Emergency Services has me on their call list on everything (from WW3 to collapse of urban core into the multiple level water-filled abandoned coal mine below), so one more telephone call about a horrific prospect can't hurt;
I've even been looking with some interest toward the day the
nearby volcano suddenly explodes throwing molten stone overhead into the sea as it withdraws just prior to a tsunami.

Answer 5

No and even if I knew what would be the point? Mankind would be destroyed so I couldn't do anything and if I felt a need to finalize anything...no point to that either because everyone would be in the same boat.

Answer 6

Heck Yea If I'm going to die with everyone for sure. I want to go out and join the chaos and do whatever comes to mind at the time

Answer 7

Yeah i'd like to know. At least the whole world will be stopping the war and take the chance of togetherness the world hardly had before

Answer 8

I did like to know which missile could hit & destroy that asteroid! and avert the situation! and work 24 hrs on that to save mankind and all beings! on this planet called earth!

Hope nothing like it never happens!

Cheers!

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

No, not even if I was the ONLY to know. I would not want to spend my last moments in worry, and sadness or panic. I would rather die going on normally, and just have it happen. i would rather die taking a walk or shopping or something, then sitting on my bed, thinking about losing everyone i love.

Answer 11

Why not? I would rather be prepared than just walking along and- bam!!- asteroid central 50 miles away. Gotta get bullets for my gun! ha!