Stephen Hawking: Humans must escape Earth or perish

Credit: NASA

Escape Earth?  What does that even mean?

Take a look at the image of the Moon's surface.  Notice the craters.  They are the scars of impacts from fast moving objects in a range of sizes.  Every planet in the Solar System has been impacted in a similar way.

So where are the craters on Earth?  Most of them have been obliterated by erosion.  A few survive, the best preserved is Meteor Crater in Arizona.


Credit: Al S/ Yelp

Not quite so obvious is the meteor crater in the Gulf of Mexico.  Evidence points to debris thrown high into the atmosphere by the impact being responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

A similar impact today would be a disaster for humanity.

http://www.dvice.com/2013-4-15/stephen-hawking-humans-must-escape-earth-or-perish / acclaimed British scientist Stephen Hawking urgent call continuation space exploration programs programme program beyond Earth live next millennium species extinct space humanity Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles proponent space exploration planet Earth continue to support human life population finite resources planet Earth growing exponentially,  technical ability change environment genetic code  selfish aggressive instincts survival advantage avoid disaster next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million Hawking our only chance of long-term survival spread out into space space exploration global financial crisis major spending cuts NASA NASA’s budget planetary science cut $300 million exploration prediction Kepler mission discovering scores potentially habitable planets new technology fusion powered fusion-powered rockets rocket journey planets stars /