Is space trying to kill us? - Ron Shaneyfelt

Key Takeaways

there are still lots of things about space that we may never be able to answer like as time travel possible or are aliens living somewhere else in the Milky Way but there is one thing I believe about space space is trying to kill me space isn't out to get me personally it's also trying to kill you and everybody else think about it space doesn't naturally have what we need to survive when we travel there no air it's too hot or too cold no ozone to protect us from those nasty UV rays either this all sounds bad but what can space really do to me if I stay on earth what we need to understand is that objects in space can cause people to think their days are numbered even when there are events on earth they can burn or kill us before something from space does so what are the odds that one of these objects will really affect earth and you and me in our lifetime well we can take what we know about the universe to try and figure that out you might have heard stories about asteroids hitting the earth that would be pretty bad scientists think asteroids might have killed off most of the dinosaurs it sounds like something we should worry about right well astronomers can now watch asteroids in space and see them coming using complex computer models to predict the deadly rocks path for a while the reported odds that asteroid Apophis would strike earth in 2036 were once one in 625 but after updating their data astronomers now say the chances are extremely low okay what about the Sun Hollywood movies like to pick on our Sun by showing earth destroyed by solar flares or the Sun dying out which would cause an earth to freeze astronomers predict our Sun contains enough gas to make energy for another three to five billion years so in three to five billion years a people still exist on earth they'll have to deal with that but today well we're safe sometimes the Sun does shoot flares at Earth but the magnetic field surrounding our planet blocks most of that radiation the radiation that does get through creates things like the aurora borealis gigantic solar flares can mess with our satellites and electrical equipment but the chances of it killing you are pretty slim okay what about that supermassive black hole in the middle of our galaxy what happens to earth and us when it pulls us in after all it is supermassive nope not going to happen that's one big object that can't bother us how can we be so sure our solar system is on the edge of the Milky Way while the nearest supermassive black hole is about 26,000 light-years from Earth that means we aren't on that black hole's menu so you still think space objects are trying to kill you even after what I've told you so far I think I've even convinced myself that odds are really good that space of the objects up there won't kill me after all but I'll probably keep looking up just to make sure nothing is headed my way