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Million Killers

Astronomers are thinking up ways to reduce the risk
of an asteroid collision. But is it too late?

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Sunday April 13, 2036 5.06 p.m. local time. A second sun lights up in the Sydney sky. In a second, it crashes into the city, causing a gigantic explosion 100,000 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. An asteroid with a diameter of 300 metres has just struck the Earth...

5.07 p.m. A blinding ball of fire incinerates everything within a 20-kilometre radius of the impact point. Beyond this range, the heat is still so intense that even up to 100 kilometres away, people in the street receive third degree burns. Only those lucky enough to be in the shadow of a building will escape burns. The shock wave from the impact will flatten trees and buildings up to 50 kilometres away.

5.08 p.m. A violent seismic wave causes widespread panic up to 200 kilometres away from the asteroid impact site, shaking buildings and transport systems.

5.09 p.m. Incandescent rocks begin to rain from the sky, simultaneously lighting thousands of fires right up the coast.

5.13 p.m. Sand and dust rain down on the whole region...

11.59 p.m. The whole world now knows that an unimaginable catastrophe has occurred, costing tens of millions of lives. In Honolulu, Hawaii, people gather in the streets after seeing the news on TV. Suddenly, a murmur runs through the crowd. They clearly hear the detonation... at 1,200 kilometres per hour, the sound of the impact has spread slower than the news on TV, but it is so loud it can still be heard thousands of kilometres away from the point of impact.