How big of a problem are asteroids, and should people worry about them?

Question

I understand that we can be hit by asteroids without warning!

Answer 1

The Earth will always be hit by asteriods although a big enough impact to cause an extinction event is *probably* a long way off. Don't me wrong it will happen but we're talking on a scale of maybe once every tens of millions of years, would have to be very unlucky to bare witness to it in your lifetime.

Jupiter does a marvelous job of protecting the inner solar system, for example shoemaker-levy 9 a few years ago. A lot of the larger asteroids are attracted by its gravity.

There are more immediate threats to the future of mankind, unfortunately most if not all of these are manmade.

Answer 2

The rough answer is that you are about as likely to die by being hit by an asteroid as you are to die in an airplane crash---in other words, not very likely. The big difference is that if it happens to you, it's likely to happen to a lot of people (perhaps everyone) at the same time.

Answer 3

We're hit by small 'asteroids' (called meteors) every day. It's only the big ones (say over a few meters across) that can do any real damage. And we've been hit by them before and will certainly be hit by them again.
But I'd worry more about being struck by lightning ☺

Doug