I’ve been reading Death by Black Hole, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s witty and informative collection of essays on the cosmos. Today I came across an essay entitled “Coming Attractions” in the section appropriately called When the universe turns bad. The essay details what will happen in 2036 if the asteroid Apophis (the Egyptian goddess of darkness and death) swings too close to Earth in 2029. It’s bad news, basically. Here is the essay; the talk below amends the Apophis portion and contains the really scary shit.