It kept going through the pandemic. It kept going through an overwhelming election season. It kept going in the face of bad news about wildfires and good news about lunar exploration. Through it all, tabloid newspapers and clickbait websites kept hyping stories about "killer asteroids" headed our way — and people kept reading, clicking, and worrying.
No doubt, a lot of people enjoy those kinds of stories because, deep down, they don't believe the catastrophe is going to happen; it's fun to imagine precisely because it seems fantastical, like watching New York and L.A. get torn apart in a Hollywood disaster movie. And to be clear, asteroid impacts are real thing, as frighteningly demonstrated by the 20-meter-wide rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, injuring more than 1,500 people. There is good reason to study asteroids, understand the risks, and develop ways to deflect a threatening object if need ...
