200 million dollars but each day every day, an asteroid the size of a sofa lands on earth

r/

The asteroid in question cannot be stopped by any means, it’s magically powered so that means Nasa/Any governmental agencies will never be able to come up with solutions to that issue

The asteroid will land at random places on earth, it’s totally random, but there’s still that tiny little chance of it hitting you

Do you take the deal or not?

Comments

  1. AutoModerator Avatar

    Copy of the original post in case of edits: The asteroid in question cannot be stopped by any means, it’s magically powered so that means Nasa/Any governmental agencies will never be able to come up with solutions to that issue

    The asteroid will land at random places on earth, it’s totally random, but there’s still that tiny little chance of it hitting you

    Do you take the deal or not?

    I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

  2. Global_Addendum_6200 Avatar

    This would destroy the world in a matter of a couple years wouldn’t it

  3. Classic-Ad8849 Avatar

    No. If it lands, it means it was much bigger, and if it’s everyday, people will die everyday inevitably. I’d rather not take the money

  4. hereiswhatisay Avatar

    Forever? Then no. Specific timeframe, I would give some thought.

  5. Corey307 Avatar

    No. The damage from one strike would not be severe unless it hit dead center in a heavily populated area, but one of them hitting every day would plunge the world into chaos. And there’s always the concern about a monkeys paw situation with the very first one hits your house.

  6. plumbusinsuranceltd Avatar

    Is it the size of a sofa before entering the atmosphere or on impact?

  7. EmbarrassedPudding22 Avatar

    Pretty sure something the size of a sofa would burn up well before hitting the surface.

  8. Lady-Kat1969 Avatar

    Depends on the sofa. One the size of a sectional would be a Bad Thing, but one the size of a Barbie Dream House sofa? We get those pretty much every day anyway.

  9. Smyley12345 Avatar

    Meteor craters are about 10-20 times the size of the object on impact. The odd of a house sized circle on the Earth landing in a populated area is exceptionally low. It might kick up localized waves or dust but big picture it would likely be decades without any sort of practical effect on Earth or people.

  10. Muertog Avatar

    asteroid _lands_ the size of a sofa, or an asteroid the size of a sofa hits the atmosphere?

  11. FarConstruction4877 Avatar

    So is it that size when it hits earth, or when it enters the atmosphere. Cuz if the latter it’s just gonna burn up to nothing before it lands lol.

    Also chances are extremely low, far lower than me winning the lottery or dying in a traffic accident or in a mass shooting ot choking to death, practically a 0% chance of it hitting me, like extremely extremely low, I’m taking it.

    Besides, at least it will be quick if it does take me out.

  12. frank26080115 Avatar

    I don’t see the downsides here

  13. PapaTua Avatar

    Absolutely.

    In 2007 a 3m (10 ft) meteorite hit Peru. The impact created a crater about 4.5m (15 ft) deep, 13m (43 ft) wide, with visibly scorched earth around the impact site.

    > One villager was as close as 100 metres (330 ft) from the impact. He fell from his bicycle but was not injured. A small building 120 metres (390 ft) from the impact site only sustained roof damage from flying debris.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Carancas_impact_event

    The odds of a 43 ft wide crater injuring even a single human is so low, and the damage so localized, this could go on for a thousand years without hurting anyone.

  14. falknorRockman Avatar

    I take this because a soda sized asteroid would burn up and would just be space dust when it lands on earth.

  15. Zuzcaster Avatar

    I take it. 

    Super awesome side effect: the entire planet starts a new space race to (practice?) intercept or redirect these space rocks.

    The suddeness of it all causes much research into how and where they came from.

    Side effect of those, within a decade I could buy a publicly available spaceship to do space stuff.

  16. Admast79 Avatar

    Looks like most people missing the point.

    Op state it LANDS… This means for me there is no impact like normal asteroid would hit the earth.

  17. ReactionAble7945 Avatar

    I am taking the money.

  18. JeffSergeant Avatar

    It can’t be stopped, but being an asteroid it must come from space, so it’s landing zone could be predicted; after the first dozen or so they would assign as much telescope/satellite time as needed to get the tracking down to within a few hundred feet; plenty of time to issue an evacuation order if it’s going to land in a populated area.

    Hell, I could use some of my 200 million dollars to rent the hardware, and personnel, to do the tracking myself.

    The energy we could harness from an unstoppable object in space would be amazing, imagine being able to piggy-back on one to get a boost into the outer solar system, or even for orbital adjustments, and I could use 200 days of income to end world hunger.

  19. thathoothslegion Avatar

    Awesome. Let’s do it.

  20. mgarr_aha Avatar

    Yes! I need a new sofa. A carbonaceous chondrite would look great with Grandma’s old coffee table.

  21. MrDBS Avatar

    Whose life am I willing to risk to be part of the 1%? Nobody. Hard Pass

  22. minaminonoeru Avatar

    I will accept.

    The sofa-sized meteorite would weigh about four tons.

    But if you think about it, Russia has been pouring ballistic and cruise missiles across Ukraine every day for the past three years. These are not just rocks, but missiles equipped with warheads that are detonated.

    Let’s say that Russia fires one missile at Ukraine per day. Ukraine will not be hit.

    Moreover, let’s say that the missiles are fired randomly inside Ukrainian territory without targeting any specific targets. The missiles will then become tactically meaningless.

    Let’s take it a step further. Let’s say that a missile is fired randomly somewhere on Earth, and the warhead is just a rock.

    The probability that this rock missile will kill one or more humans is close to zero.

    And in fact, no one has been officially confirmed to have died from a meteorite in human history.

  23. AJM_1987 Avatar

    1000% yes. Even a “sofa sized” meteor of 1-2 meters, i.e. the dimensions of a sofa, would do very little damage, and that’s something considerably larger than a meteor with the mass of a sofa (300 lbs/150 kilos), rocks being far more dense than a typical combo of wood, fabric/leather, foam, and springs.

    Far more people die daily from car accidents, regulatory negligence, and a host of other wholly preventable causes vs. this hypothetical meteor, the likes of which occur regularly without much notice.