It used to be a long shot, but now that the Mega Millions jackpot has soared to $636 million ahead of Tuesday night's drawing, it's insanely more unlikely than a long shot.

The beefy payout likely has a Pavlovian effect on regular lottery players, but anyone with a modicum of math proficiency knows he might as well set fire to that $1 bill as spend it on a ticket.

Your odds of getting all six numbers correct for the second-largest Mega Millions jackpot are about 1 in 259 million, according to the lottery company. You have more than 1,000 times better chance of an asteroid or comet killing you -- and that's using the long odds, according to Tulane University.

Which is to say, astronomical.

It's worth mentioning that you have a one-in-15 chance of winning something, even if it's just getting your dollar back, while the odds of winning the second-place $1 million prize -- that is, matching five balls, but not the Mega Ball -- are about 1 in 18.5 million.

Those numbers are hard for the average person to fathom, so maybe it's easier if we provide you a list of things that are way more likely than collecting a Mega Millions jackpot:

1. Dying from being struck by lightning



Odds: 1 in 3 million



Source: Harvard School of Public Health

The chances of being hit by lightning at all over an 80-year lifetime are 1 in 10,000, according to the National Weather Service.



2. Drowning — or other beach-related fatalities



Odds: 1 in 2 million



Source: Florida Museum of Natural History, based on U.S. beach injury statistics in 2000



3. Being attacked by a shark



Odds: 1 in 11.5 million



Source: Florida Museum of Natural History



4. Dying from a bee sting



Odds: 1 in 6.1 million



Source: Harvard School of Public Health



5. Dying in a plane crash



Odds: 1 in 11 million



Source: PBS' "Nova," based on data from the U.S. Department of Transportation



6. Becoming president of the United States

Odds: 1 in 10 million

Source: International Business Times

7. Having conjoined twins



Odds: 1 in 200,000



Source: University of Maryland Medical Center



8. Being crushed and killed by a vending machine

Odds: 1 in 112 million

Source: Discovery News

9. Being killed using a right-handed product, if you're left-handed



Odds: 1 in 7 million



Source: Gizmodo



10. Hitting a hole-in-one on two consecutive, par-3 holes



Odds: 1 in 156 million



Source: U.S. Hole in One, which insures golf prizes for holes in one



Also of note, the chances of an amateur golfer making a single hole-in-one on a par-3 hole is about 1 in 12,500.



11. Hitting a deer while driving in Hawaii



Odds: 1 in 6,267



Source: State Farm, from a 2011 study on collissions between vehicles and deer, said to be least likely in the state of Hawaii.

