8 Things That Would Happen If An Asteroid Hit Earth

7. Before Impact

Given that NASA's official advice as to what to do in the event of a large asteroid impact is "pray", the time between alerts and impact would likely be filled with panic.

We'd probably have a few month's warning. An asteroid of this size on a collision course with Earth would be easy to spot, even by amatuer astronomers, and you can be sure that NASA are keeping half an eye on the near-earth doomsday devices in our solar system.

A few month's warning sounds like a long time, until you try digging a nuclear bunker in your back yard, then it doesn't seem like any time at all.

Assuming that we don't have the technology to deflect the asteroid, this time would hopefully be spent finding as many ways to keep ourselves safe as possible. It wouldn't be feasible to get enough of the population off-world so getting underground or underwater might be a good strategy, preferably on the opposite side of the Earth to the impact zone.