Should the Public be told about a possible Asteroid Impact ?

[Independent voter]

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is about life after a big meteor impact that kicks up enough dust to block the sun and all the plants on earth die, and then all the animals who feed on plants die. Humans are all that's left and they're eating canned food for the most part.

They made a movie out of the book I think.

[Blobfish]

Watch this and be scared. Asteroids discovered over time.

WOW that is both beautiful & scary.

I think most people forget that we are living on a planet floating thru a chaotic Universe.

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"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy is about life after a big meteor impact that kicks up enough dust to block the sun and all the plants on earth die, and then all the animals who feed on plants die. Humans are all that's left and they're eating canned food for the most part.

They made a movie out of the book I think.

And the people who survive are the Doomsday Preppers

And maybe people with Guns that can deter people away from their precious resources

[Putin-Chan]

I believe that the public should be told if there is chance of extinction, and proper evacuation procedures should occur if it is avoidable. People should have a right to die with their loved ones in a situation where survival is impossible, and any and all lives that can be saved should be saved.

[Masark]

Last Saturday, astronomers discovered a new asteroid, just a few hours before it almost hit us.

The asteroid is called 2016 QA2, and it missed the Earth by less than a quarter of the distance to the moon.
That puts it about three times as far away from Earth as our farthest satellites. And we never saw it coming.

We didn't see it coming because that's a small asteroid. Small means it's hard to see. Bigger ones are easier to see.

And due to that same smallness, it's nowhere near an existential threat.

An asteroid that size would hit with about as much energy as a 10 megaton explosion. Humanity has intentionally set off explosions that size and larger at least 8 times.

It could kill a lot of people (several million) if it hit in the wrong place, but the rest of the world that it didn't land on would hardly notice, other than probable demands by the public for increased funding for asteroid cataloguing, tracking, and interdiction options.

[caervek]

The Asteroid that possibly made the dinosaurs extinct and according to abundant geological evidence, was an asteroid
roughly 10 km (6 miles) across.
https://www.psi.edu/epo/ktimpact/ktimpact.html

I have always wondered how Humans would react to a sign of impending disaster and possible death.

Just a note, an asteroid of that size could easily be dealt with via a nuclear strike (no you don't actually have to land Bruce Willis on it).

[Raptor With a Saber]

No not unless its a 100% chance to kill us all. Other wise that will just make everyone revert to natural state and just Baltimore/Ferguson everything.

[Rudkobing]

LET THEM EAT CAKE. Off with their head!!!!

[nextormento]

If I understand how these impacts work, we would not be obliterated instantaneously. Some will, of course: those in the immediate vicinity, and those affected by massive tsunamis around the globe. The rest would perish slowly, starved of solar energy, and thus food. I imagine those in the last group would benefit from some information before the impact.
Other than that, I see little benefit in causing massive panic. But I imagine professionals on the field will eventually develop some protocol of information, if they don't already have one. Maybe doctors know something about informing the public in the case of outbreaks.
If we ever build the mechanisms to deflect or destroy them before they hit, and it becomes a regular activity, I doubt we'll much know until after the fact.

This reminds me of the Citicorp tower secret retrofit (99% invisible podcast). The tower had a design flaw that would make it collapse in the case of a mild wind storm. It was already built and functioning when they figured it out. What they did was include a few structural changes overnight. But they didn't make it publicly known. While it does raise some questions, since it has a happy ending (nothing happened and the building is now safe), people don't seem to much care about it.

[zenkai]

Given the paranoia and terror that occurs every time a muslim farts, I don't think the public should really be told about something which might actually genuinely threaten the planet, however remote the possibility.

That's what we call a dirty bomb.

[ItachiZaku]

I trust Bruce, Ben, and Billy Bob to save us. Unless, it was throw at us by Klendathu.

[Medusa Cascade]

Just paint the asteroid white

[Ciddy]

Hard to say. Also depends on how serious of an impact we're talking. It could be a "the entire population is totally fucked if it hits us" thing, or maybe it's not quite that bad.

On one side, I'm thinking I'd definitely want to know about it and have time to prepare (or if nothing else, tie up all my loose ends before it happens). On the other side....things would be pretty chaotic. People would riot, take advantage of the chaos to loot, etc. It would be pretty ugly. I also feel like the public would find out one way or another anyway (maybe later rather than sooner, but yeah).