Figure Out Your Odds of Being Struck by an Asteroid

[MikeWehner]

Figure Out Your Odds of Being Struck by an Asteroid

Hundreds of space rocks hit our planet every year, but how big of a risk do they pose to you?

It should go without saying that your odds of your house being nailed by an asteroid are rather slim, but just how slim are they? Thankfully, real estate blog Movoto has built a tool that allows you to figure out just exactly what your odds are. Simply typing in the square footage of your home is all you need to do to find out your chance of being flattened.

For someone in a 2,500sq ft. home, the chances of being hit by a space rock are approximately 1 in 2,196,269,636,024 over a 1-year span. According to Movoto, each year the Earth is hit with one asteroid between 16 and 33 feet in diameter. However, roughly 500 smaller asteroids make impact worldwide.

So go ahead and type in your home's digits and find out how big of a chance you stand of making the news. Feel free to post your odds in the comments and we'll find out which one of us should be the most worried.

Source: Movoto [http://www.movoto.com/blog/novelty-real-estate/asteroid/]

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[josemlopes]

I wish those websites would use normal measuring charts. It's only two countries on the damned planet that even use imperial any longer.

America uses it so watchya gonna do?

 

[tippy2k2]

Also, this doesn't factor in that I live in an apartment that's in the basement. Science has once again failed me!

 

[GundamSentinel]

Astronomer Alan Harris once calculated the odds of any person dying from an asteroid impact as 1 in 700000 (less than being killed by a fireworks accident, but more probable than being killed by terrorists or in an amusement park ride). So far, no official record of anyone being killed by an asteroid exists, but this takes into account the average time between big impacts and the number of people that will suffer from it. When a big one does hit (and it will) there'll obviously be a lot of casualties, no matter where or how big their houses are.

Spending billions on fighting terrorists, but the risk of asteroid death is actually higher. And that's without taking comets into account, which come from deep space and have hard to predict trajectories. Ah well.

 

[VanQ]

Astronomer Alan Harris once calculated the odds of any person dying from an asteroid impact as 1 in 700000 (less than being killed by a fireworks accident, but more probable than being killed by terrorists or in an amusement park ride). So far, no official record of anyone being killed by an asteroid exists, but this takes into account the average time between big impacts and the number of people that will suffer from it. When a big one does hit (and it will) there'll obviously be a lot of casualties, no matter where or how big their houses are.

Spending billions on fighting terrorists, but the risk of asteroid death is actually higher. And that's without taking comets into account, which come from deep space and have hard to predict trajectories. Ah well.

To be fair, the chances of a terrorist killing you would probably be a whole lot higher if so much wasn't spent on preventative measures. It's not like those asteroids are actively seeking our blood because we believe in a different God to them.

 

[Eleuthera]

1m[sup]2[/sup] ~ 11.11 sqft

So for my slightly over 1000sqft appartment I get 1 in 5,490,674,090,059 a year. Assuming I'll continue living there for at least 10 more years it's 1 in 549,067,409,005. I'm pretty much ok with those odds.

However since this is an appartment block I should probably use the area of the building and not my appartment, as a decent hit will bring the building down...

Then again does this account for all the time I'm away from home?

 

[Strazdas]

I wish those websites would use normal measuring charts. It's only two countries on the damned planet that even use imperial any longer.

America uses it so watchya gonna do?

stop bending over and letting them with their idiotic emotional rollecoaster measurements system.

this test is useless. i was hoping it would account the location you live in and atmosphere amoutn asteroid has to travel to reach there thus deciding the chance. but this is jtu about flat square size, useless, id rather go play with my nuke explosion radius test instead.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I don't know if anyone's heard but you guys might not want to tell the Russians about those odds.

http://news.yahoo.com/possible-meteor-shower-reported-eastern-russia-052833588.html

400 hurt, and RT website has a video of the meteor falling.

 

[luvd1]

I don't know if anyone's heard but you guys might not want to tell the Russians about those odds.

http://news.yahoo.com/possible-meteor-shower-reported-eastern-russia-052833588.html

400 hurt, and RT website has a video of the meteor falling.

I was just about to say the same. How fortuitous for this artical to be posted on the same day a meteor smacks up a Russian city injuring hundreds and being just anti-social.