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The universe is trying to kill us. In Death From the Skies! by our own Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait, counts the ways the world will end. Start worrying in a few million years about a cosmic dust collision, when the sun hits the closest spiral arm of our galaxy. Take your chances with an exploding star. Or manage to escape these threats, and you just get an extra 10 ^35 years before all matter decays anyway.

EventDamageOdds of fatality per lifetimePreventable?

asteroid impactLocal for a small rock, global for a big one 1 in 700,000 Almost 100% preventable. Identify potential impactors, then blow them up or push them out of the way

solar flare/cme

Collapse of power grid, potential ozone depletion 0*

Non-preventable, but mitigatable

Build robust power grids

supernovaOzone depletion, radiation 1 in 10,000,000 Not preventable

gamma-ray burstOzone depletion, radiation, setting planet on fire 1 in 14,000,000 Not preventable

black holeDestruction of Earth 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 Not preventable

alien attack

Humanity wiped out by aliens, space bugs give us runny noses ?

Preventable, assuming we colonize the galaxy first.

Otherwise, forget it.

death of the sunEarth cooked to a crisp 0 † Not preventable, but we have a long time to go yet

galactic doom Ice ages, radiation, eaten by supermassive black hole 0 † Not preventable, but again, none of these will happen on a human timescale

death of the universe Decay of all matter, collapse of false vacuum 0 † Not preventable, but dwarfs any timescale we can imagine

* Fatalities are very unlikely from a solar event, but they can still cause extensive damage.

† These events all take billions of years (at least!) to unfold, so the chances of them happening during your lifetime are zero, but are inevitable over longer times.

Table reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from DEATH FROM THE SKIES! © Philip Plait, Ph.D., 2008