Asteroid Apophis is Coming | Ground Zero: California

This episode of the Y Files is brought. to you by Upside. On April 13th, 2029, an asteroid named. Apous will come within 19,000 mi of. Earth. It will fly under our. communication satellites. It'll be. visible to the naked eye. NASA says. we're safe. But on a cosmic scale,

19,000 mi is nothing. A nudge from solar. wind, a tap from another asteroid, or a. simple miscalculation is all it would. take. We already know where it would. hit. We know what would happen. Apous is. coming. And it's a killer. [Music]. >> Well, we're waiting. Yeah, human. Thank. goodness. It's an emergency. >> You didn't give anyone a blurpous palmer.

again, did you? That guy from hole four. still thinks he's a lizard. >> Yeah, he may believe he's a gecko now. Uh, but the guy can drain a 10-footer. while licking his own eyeball. >> Listen, human. I'm five under par with. low blood sugar and he wants 16 bucks. for a hot dog. >> Start bringing your own snacks. >> I did. Wyatt ate everything on Whole. Three. Said he needed a full stomach to. handle a long shaft in the rough. Long shack. What do you want me to do? >> Bring me food. Something fancy. Uh, like.

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shot. If he sinks it, I lose the visor, the parking spot, and my key to the. executive ball washer. >> Sounds fancy. >> It's not. It's Steve. He smells like. cinnamon and calls everyone captain. The story begins on June 19th, 2004. Two. astronomers at Kit Peak Observatory. found a faint dot moving against the.

stars. They logged it as 2004 MN4 and. went back to work. Within weeks, observatories around the world were. tracking it. The more data they. collected, the more concerned they. became. This asteroid's path looked like. it might intersect with Earth's. The picture got clearer and scarier. The. asteroid was big, 1480 ft long, larger. than the Empire State Building. In. December, scientists made a shocking.

announcement. 2004 MN4 had a 2.7% chance. of hitting Earth on April 13th, 2029, a. 1 in 37 chance of impact. 67 million tons of rock and metal were. roaring toward us at 19 m/s. The. asteroid was officially named Apous, the. Egyptian serpent god of darkness and. destruction. It was rated a four on the Torino scale. >> Yeah, Torino scale. Uh, the Clintes.

would have bet that. No, no. The Torino. scale measures the hazard of an impact. >> Ah, that makes more sense. >> A zero on the Torino scale means no. threat. A 10 means no planet. Even a. four is a concern. Apous was the first. object in history to reach that level. This was bad. The media went wild. Headlines screamed about the god of. chaos. Cable news ran countdown clocks. >> Were countdown clocks more accurate than. their election predictions? >> No.

>> Uh-huh. But scientists worked around the. clock. In 2005, they announced Apous. would miss the Earth. But they found a. new problem. A region in space about. half a mile wide. If Apous passes. through it, the chance of impact on the. next pass isn't 2.7%. It's 100%.

[Music]. Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 3:00 a.m. looks abandoned. Most buildings are. dark. But in the Center for Near-Earth Object. Studies, Marsha Singh stares at her. monitor. She's running the Yarovsky.

drift calculations for the third time. Solar radiation pressure on rotating. asteroids causes tiny changes in orbit. Tiny changes that add up over decades. >> This can't be right. >> The numbers came back wrong again. Apous isn't following its predicted. path. The deviation is small, 0.003°, but that's enough. The asteroid will thread Earth's.

gravitational keyhole, a 1200 ft region. of space that will bend Apothesis'. trajectory, bend it directly into Earth. Outside, Los Angeles sleeps. 14 million. people who don't know they have 90 days. left. The impact models show Catalina Island. as ground zero. >> Billy, check the path of 2004 MN4. Are. you seeing this?

>> Hang on. >> Oh my god. >> What are you going to do? I have to call the president. >> Marsha, go home. Be with your family. >> We now go to the White House where the. president is about to make an emergency. announcement. >> My fellow Americans,

I speak to you now with a heavy heart. >> CBS News can now confirm that asteroid. Apous will hit Earth on April 13th. This. is a Fox News alert. NASA says the. asteroid Apus will impact Earth on April. 13th. >> Global preparations are underway. >> APAS will hit near California on April. 13th. >> Coastal regions are urged to prepare for. immediate evacuation. The Department of. Homeland Security has activated. emergency protocols. >> We've now entered the final phase. Apous.

will strike Earth on April 13th. Prepare. accordingly. On Friday, April 13th, 2029, humanity. will witness something beautiful and. dangerous. >> You sounds like my second wife. >> If you're going to interrupt me right at. the top, can you at least make the joke. a little less hacky? >> You're the straight man. Leave the. comedy to the professional. Huh? >> Apous will pass just 19,300 m from.

Earth's surface. That's closer than our. communication satellites. For millions. of people in the Eastern Hemisphere, it. will appear at sunset, a bright point of. light as bright as any star. But this. star will be moving fast. So fast you'll. see it cross the sky in real time. From. the ground, the event will be a. spectacle. But for Apous, the flyby will. be violent. As it passes, Earth's. gravity will grab it, squeeze it, and. twist it. These tidal forces could. trigger landslides and quakes on the.

asteroid surface, changing its path. This brings us to the keyhole. A. gravitational keyhole is a small region. of space. For Apous, it's only about. 2,000 ft wide. If the asteroid passes. through it in 2029, Earth's gravity. becomes a slingshot. It'll pull the. asteroid back to where it started for a. guaranteed impact on April 13th, 2036, Easter Sunday. Current calculations. based on years of radar data from. Goldstone and Araibo show Apous will.

miss the keyhole barely unless something. changes. And that's what makes Apous so. dangerous. It's not solid rock. It's a. collection of boulders and dust held. together by gravity. And it's not a. sphere. It's shaped like a skyscraper. So it has no primary axis. It doesn't. rotate. It tumbles. This chaotic motion. makes subtle forces almost impossible to. predict. The most important thing is the. Aarovsky effect. The sun heats one side. of the asteroid. As it tumbles, that.

heat radiates back into space and this. creates thrust. >> Hold on. Hold on. Not everybody is Mike. the Grass Tyson. >> That's That's not how does that make. thrust? >> Well, the heat causes gas to vent, which. creates the thrust. >> Ah, now I get it. I can also create. thrust by venting gas. >> Pardon me. Classy. This is just a tiny push. About the. weight of an apple. A tiny push is. hardly noticeable. But over millions of. miles, it can change in orbit. NASA's.

own measurements show it's already. drifting because of this effect. About. 650 ft closer to us every year. Right. now, Apous is impossible to see. It's. lost in the glare of the sun. It won't. be visible again until 2027. And during. this blind spot, a small nudge from. another rock could alter its path. completely. And we would have just 2. years to recalculate everything. And 2. years to prepare for a city killer might. be enough. But sometimes we only get. hours. Sometimes city killers aren't.

found until they fly by. In fact, this. happened last year. [Music]. The president hasn't been seen in 5. days. His last public appearance was the. announcement.

>> We have 90 days to solve this problem. America's best minds are working on it. >> Then he vanished. Official word, secured. at an undisclosed location. Everyone. knew that meant Cheyenne Mountain. Anyone who had the means to escape. didn't waste any time. >> Once the risk hit X, they were gone. Politicians, celebrities, people you've. watched your whole life evacuated while. the highways jammed. >> What we saw was an orderly panic among.

the ultra wealthy. Beverly Hills emptied. almost overnight. >> It was Beverly Hills first. No surprise. there. Gulf Streams and Learjets lined. up like limos taking off every 90. seconds. >> The 405 is a graveyard of abandoned. vehicles. Families walked for days into. the Mojave. >> The poor headed to tent cities in. Nevada. Desert camps with no water, no. power, no plan, just distance from the. coast. >> Fuel ran out, roads clogged. Now tent. cities rise like new towns. Only no one. planned them.

>> 3 million people have fled Los Angeles. in just 14 days. 3 million people gone. in two weeks. Gas hit $47 a gallon. Then. the stations just closed. The tanker. drivers stopped showing up. Why deliver. fuel for worthless paper? >> Markets remain volatile as the Apous. timeline advances. Commodities like. iodine tablets, fuel, and food stocks. have surged in value. >> The new currency is water, ammunition, and insulin. A vial of insulin costs. three gallons of water if you can find. it.

We all got to watch Apous grow larger in. the sky. A red star visible during. daylight, getting bigger every day. Suicide hotline stopped answering. Too. many calls. Not enough volunteers. The. volunteers had their own lives to worry. about. >> Apous, prepare for the light. >> Religious movements started sprouting. up. >> As the world edges closer to impact, religious fervor has surged. The church. of the final days and the apos witnesses. have emerged offering hope and salvation.

for those who believe. >> Guide us. [Music]. >> When official authorities dissolved, the. local population took control. >> The Los Angeles Police Department. dissolved last week. Over half the force. simply didn't show up. The chain of. command collapsed overnight. >> The 405 belongs to the Crips now. Their. blue flags fly over improvised. roadblocks. They're not attacking rival. crews. They're screening vehicles and.

controlling movement. Crips and Serenos. are distributing food, rationing. medicine, even setting curfews. Ma'am, it's not safe to be out. If you need. anything, check with me. >> What used to be gang turf in Los Angeles. has now hardened into checkpoint states. Neighborhoods that once feared violence. are now relying on it for structure. Call them gangs, call them militias, but. right now they're the only thing. resembling law and order in the city of. Los Angeles. >> Society didn't collapse, it reorganized. itself. The powerful fled, the poor.

waited, and Apous kept coming. [Music]. While some astronomers celebrated, another rock caused global panic. In. late 2024, asteroid 2024 YR4 became the. most dangerous object in modern history. A building sized rock. Its impact. probability kept climbing 1.5%, then.

2.8%. Then over 3%. That threat prompted China. to establish its first ever planetary. defense unit. They're recruiting. astrophysicists under age 35. Their 2030. mission will try to deflect asteroid. 2015 XF261. using a dual spacecraft approach. One to. impact, another to evaluate the results. International cooperation is growing. because the truth is we have no idea. what's coming. NASA estimates there are.

25,000 city killers crossing our orbit. They've only found half. 13,500 are. still out there somewhere completely. hidden. >> Somewhere completely hidden, huh? Uh, you mean like the moon landing tapes? >> This detection gap creates nightmare. scenarios. In 2019, asteroid 2019, okay, was found. It's 400 ft wide. It was. spotted less than 24 hours its closest. approach. It missed Earth by only 40,000.

mi. A direct hit would have released 30. megat tons of energy. That's 300 times. the size of the Hiroshima bomb. All with. less than a day's warning. The problem is the sun. Our telescopes. have to look away from the sun. Objects. approaching from that direction remain. invisible until they hit us. Like in. 2013, the meteor that hit Chellyix.

[Music]. NASA's NEO surveyor telescope is set to. launch in 2027. It will finally close.

this blind spot. It'll use infrared and. should find 90% of the remaining city. killers within 10 to 20 years. But until. then, we're defenseless against an. attack from the direction of the sun. To. understand how devastating that kind of. surprise can be, you don't even have to. look up. You can look down. Cuz buried. in a layer of sediment around the world. is evidence of an impact that reset. civilization.

[Music]. The last Chinook lifted off from UCLA. Medical Center at 6:00 a.m. Doctors. stood on the helellipad watching it. disappear. They had patients on. ventilators. Premature babies in. incubators. They were not leaving. >> LAX has gone silent. No departures, no.

arrivals, just grounded planes and. flickering monitors. The terminals are. empty now. The last jet out of LAX. lifted off at 217 p.m. united to Denver. It was half full. Those who could afford. to leave already had. Those who remained made their choice. The elderly couple in Brentwood who'd. lived there 50 years. They sat on their. porch holding hands. They weren't. leaving either. >> For those still in Los Angeles, officials have confirmed that all. remaining power will be shut off today.

at exactly noon. The blackout is. deliberate to reduce fire risk after the. strike. >> Please take this time to shelter and. remain off the streets. >> The power grid shut down at noon. Controlled shutdown to prevent fires. after impact. The emergency alert system broadcasts. its final message. >> Seek shelter. Stay away from windows. God bless America. than static.

Maggie Powers, an ICU nurse, writes her. patients names on their foreheads with a. Sharpie. She figures when the building. collapses, someone should know who they. are. She has 14 patients on ventilators. The backup generators have 30 hours of. fuel. That means her patients only have. 30 hours of life. Animals flee inland. Coyotes run through. downtown. Birds fly east in massive. flocks. Dogs howl constantly. Every animal.

except humans understands what the. receding ocean means. >> Scientists warn this is not a tide. It's. a gravitational response. Something. massive is pulling on the ocean. >> The Pacific has pulled back over 20 ft. since yesterday. Like it's holding its. breath. Entire reefs are exposed. >> Seismographs are now detecting micro. quakes, gravitational pulses every 90. seconds. They're weak but rhythmic. >> Every 90 seconds, the Earth flinches. Experts say it's the gravity of what's.

coming, literally. And the ocean is. trying to warn us. The last text. messages go out before the cell towers. shut down. I love you is sent 847,000. times in Los Angeles County. Most. messages are never delivered. Apous filled 3° of sky. You could see it. tumbling end over end. A mountain in. space. The last thing 50 million people. would ever see.

12,800 years ago, Earth was emerging. from the last ice age. Temperatures were. warming. Massive ice sheets were. melting. Then suddenly, everything. reversed. A comet about 62 mi wide broke. apart and bombarded the planet. The. evidence is found in a thin layer of. rock found across four continents. The. younger dus boundary layer also referred. to as the black mat. The black mat.

contains evidence called impact proxies. Iridium, shocked quartz, nano diamonds, microscopic sphules of melted rock. At. over 40 sites, the concentrations of. impact proxies are millions of times. above normal levels. All date back to. exactly 12,800 years ago. A series of. objects hit the North American ice. sheet, causing mass flooding. Continents. sank beneath the sea. The impacts. triggered global wildfires. Then came.

the freeze. >> Ooh, a song of ice and fire. >> Yes, the freeze lasted 12,200 years. >> That's how long it's going to take. George Martin to finish the books. >> The devastation was total. Mammoths, mastadons, saber-tooth cats, American. horses, all gone. 75% of North American. megapana went extinct. 2/3s of the human. population disappeared. The first. widespread human culture in North. America vanished from the archaeological. record. This wasn't climate change. This.

wasn't over hunting. This was a. civilization reset. And comets are. different from asteroids and far more. dangerous. Asteroids follow predictable. paths. Comets arrive from the outer. solar system. They have long elliptical. orbits. so they can show up with little. warning and sometimes as little as six. months. As I write this, comet 3II Atlas. is headed our way. It was spotted a few. weeks ago. It'll make its closest. approach to Earth in December. That's.

fast. So fast, there is not a thing we. can do but watch and wait. Asteroids hit. Earth at 19 ms. Comets come in at 45. A. comet delivers more than n times the. destructive power than an asteroid of. the same size. The most dangerous comet. we know is Swift Tuttle, 16 mi wide. A. land impact would release energy 27. times greater than the chick dinosaur. killer. One astronomer called it the. single most dangerous object known to.

humanity. Now, despite what mainstream. scientists say, asteroids hit Earth all. the time. But what about comets? How. often do they hit us? Every 100 million. years? Every 10 million years? 1 million. years? Nope. Comets of all sizes hit the. Earth on average every 3 days. [Music].

The flash came first. The sky turns. white. Not bright. White. [Music].

Everything within a 100 miles ignites. simultaneously. The thermal pulse. travels at light speed. By the time your. brain understood the flash, your body. was already vapor. That's mercy. instantaneous conversion from matter to. energy. The blast wave expanded at Mach. 2, a wall of superheated air traveling. 800 mph, it flattened everything from. San Diego to Bakersfield. >> The fireball climbed 60 m into the. atmosphere so high it pierced the. meosphere. It was visible from space.

>> From Phoenix to Vegas, people saw it. light up the sky. It didn't look like. fire. It looked like a second sun. Then. the horizon vanished. Oh my god. >> Is that. [Music]. Los Angeles? [Music].

The temperature of the plume exceeded. 10,000 degrees C. What erupted wasn't. smoke. It was Earth itself turned to. gas. Seven states were hit by ejecta. It. wasn't just ash. It was fragments of. Earth's crust fused and glowing. Some of. it traveled faster than sound. >> Chunks of vaporized ocean rose miles.

into the sky, then hardened midair. before slamming down across the. southwest. Reports of burning fragments. came in from as far as Colorado. It. rained fire. [Music]. >> The earthquake was a 10.5 on the RTER. scale. The ground rippled like water. Then silence. People were too frightened to notice the. Pacific Ocean was moving.

[Music]. Every year, our planet flies through. invisible minefields left by. disintegrating comets. We call them. meteor showers. We give them pretty. names. The Percieds, the Leonids, the. Geminids. But these aren't harmless. light shows. were flying through the.

shattered remains of giant comets at 67. mph. And some of those fragments are. massive. Remember Swift Tuttle, the most. dangerous object known to humanity? The. Percied meteor shower is caused by the. Earth flying through trillions of pieces. of debris from Swift Tuttle. Trillions. And we're not just crossing one. minefield. We're crossing a dozen. The. Leonids can produce storms of hundreds. of thousands of meteors per hour. The. lids come from a comet 2 and 1/2 miles.

wide. There are 12 or 13 meteor storms. every year, sometimes more. >> It takes the Earth several days to pass. through the torid meteor stream. It's so. big. The torid meteor stream is full of. filaments of debris. Some of those. filaments are very small debris. Some of. them are much larger debris and much. more dangerous. We pass through it twice. a year. I've likened it in the past to. strapping on a blindfold and crossing an. eight lane highway and just hoping that.

you don't get hit by a truck. The meteor shower that's most relevant. to us is the Torids. The debris field is. almost 20 million m wide. We cross it. every year. It has trillions of objects. that range from the size of grains of. sand to the size of cities. How many big. objects? Nobody knows. It could be 10. It could be 100. the government doesn't. like to talk about it. >> The government knew that they couldn't. do anything about it and they were. starting to get worried calls from their. constituents that what can we do about.

these things? You got to do something. about it. You got to stop it and they. couldn't. So, what they decided to do. was to just pretend that it wasn't real. They had the public fears about the. impacts. They decided to just deny, deny, deny. Just say, "Don't worry. There's no problem. We've got it under. control when they didn't. >> The Tungusa event in 1908 happened. during the peak of the Torids. A. fragment just 200 ft wide exploded over. Siberia, flattening 80 million trees. If.

that happened over New York, Paris, or. London, those cities would be gone. But we don't really need to be hit by a. giant object to cause planetary chaos. We don't have to be hit at all. Every. year, about 50 objects pass closer to. the Earth than our satellites. Losing. our satellites would the global. economy. Phone service, the internet, the banking system, all gone. And that's. terrifying. But in 2022, for the first. time in history, humanity fought back.

[Music]. The Pacific Ocean recoils from the. impact. 8 minutes ago, Apous punched a. 12mile hole in the sea floor. The water. rushed in, hit molten rock, exploded.

into steam. Now it's coming back. What was once shoreline is now seabed. Fish carcasses rot beneath a baking sun. Downtown has four minutes left. A tsunami of unimaginable scale, 150 m.

high, is sweeping through Los Angeles. Entire districts have been erased in. seconds. >> The whole ocean is coming. Imagine a. skyscraper made of water moving at 450. mph. That's what hit Los Angeles this. afternoon. Entire neighborhoods are. gone. We are witnessing the unthinkable. A wall of water over 500 ft high has. torn through Los Angeles, moving faster. than a commercial jetliner. >> The wall of water doesn't break. It. maintains its height. >> What hit LA was no wave. It was a moving.

cliff of ocean 150 m high, traveling. faster than fire. >> I have to get to the roof. It tears. through the city at 200 mph, dragging. cars, homes, and people with it. >> Mom.

Initial estimates suggest tens of. millions are gone. Entire cities, entire. families simply vanished. We don't have. exact figures yet, but we know what's. missing. The silence from Los Angeles. That silence speaks for millions.

[Music]. But more than California is affected. This is not just California. This is not. just the United States. This event is. global. >> Catalina Island is gone. Not underwater. Gone. Erased. The impact event struck. with such force it ceased to exist. The. Pacific shelf fractured. We are no. longer talking about local devastation. This is global. There was no debris, no. island, just a column of plasma where.

land used to be. Catalina didn't sink. into the ocean. It was atomized. This is. going to affect all of us. This impact. event is global. The dust and debris in the atmosphere. blacked out the sun. Photosynthesis. stopped. The Earth's temperature dropped. by almost 10°. A new ice age was triggered. And. humanity went underground. [Music].

Right now, we're working on technology. to spot asteroids and comets early. enough to give us time to prepare. So, what if we spot one coming? What can we. do? >> I can stay awake just to hear you. breathing. >> Please don't. >> watch you smile while you are sleeping. While you're far away, I'm dreaming. Okay, that's. >> I just spare my life in this surren. >> That's enough.

>> Fine, fine. You might be blind to. asteroids, but you should have seen an. Armageddon joke coming. >> On September 26th, 2022, NASA's Dark. spacecraft slammed into the asteroid. Dorphus at 14,000 mph. The concept was. simple, but revolutionary. Take a,200lb. spacecraft, crash it into a 500 foot. wide asteroid, see if we can change its. orbit. The results exceeded. expectations. Dart changed the. asteroid's orbital period 25 times more. than required. It proved we can move.

space rocks. But the mission also. revealed a problem, the rubble pile. dilemma. Dart was far more effective. than predicted because the asteroid. wasn't a solid rock. It was a loose pile. of rubble. The impact created a massive. plume of debris that acted like a rocket. engine, supercharging the push. This. means our best defense is also messy, chaotic, and difficult to predict. >> Yeah, like Spirit Airlines. >> That was a cheap shot. >> Spirit Airlines is on time about as. often as my alimony checks.

>> Anyway, to move an asteroid requires. years of warning. For a surprise city. killer, our only short notice option is. a nuclear device. The Outer Space Treaty. of 1967 prohibits placing nuclear. weapons in space. Now, in an emergency, the world would probably wave this. restriction, but it's never been tested. We have the technology, the talent, and. the money to create the tools we need to. defend the planet. The one thing we. can't manufacture is time, and time is.

not on our side. [Music]. [Music]. The first days underground were chaotic. >> 2 million people crammed into the Moscow. Metro, half a million in the London.

Underground. Every subway system on. Earth became humanity's last refuge. People fought for platform space, killed. for corners to sleep. The strong took. the train cars. The weak got the. tunnels. The filth was unbearable. No working. toilets for millions. Disease spread. fast. Chalora, dysentery, bodies piled. up in maintenance tunnels. The smell. made people vomit, which just spread. more disease.

Then organization emerged. Not. democracy, survival. >> We're going to need everyone to pitch. in. It's the only way we survive down. here. >> Former military officers established. order. >> I think we can convert most of these. tunnels to living quarters. >> Top priority is getting power back. online. >> Engineers got generators running.

What's the volts on this? 12. >> Uh, 15. >> That's right. Nice. >> Doctors created triage stations. The. dead were processed into fertilizer. Nothing could be wasted. [Music]. We lived off mushrooms until LED lights. were brought in from abandoned cannabis. farms. Thousands of hydroponic gardens came. online.

Subway tracks were ripped up, replaced. with growing beds. The Circle Line. became London's farm. Still, we mostly ate mushrooms. [Music]. But within 6 months, the tunnels. transformed. [Music].

Art appeared on walls. >> You better not write any dirty poems. over there. >> No promises. >> Children's classrooms and old ticket. booths. An economy emerged. Calories for labor, labor for medicine, medicine for hope. >> Take three drops with a meal and you'll. feel a lot better. >> Thanks so much, Doc. >> Moscow's metro became a city. Same with.

Paris, New York, Tokyo. Organized, efficient, alive. Babies were born. underground. They'd adapted perfectly. They'd never known the sun, so they. didn't miss it. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. Ham radio networks connected the. colonies. [Music].

>> Tulsa town. This is Dallas. How copy? >> Tulsa town here. Solid copy. Dallas. >> Detroit. Do you read? Any chance you. have a spare diesel? >> We might be frozen, Toronto, but we're. still Mtown. We got you. >> Appreciate it, Mtown. >> Baltimore's got your back. You can count. on us. >> Hang in there, Milwaukee. We've got. water filters to spare. Chicago saves. our bacon again. Thanks again, Windy.

City. >> Thank you, Boston. We owe you one. >> Go Red Sox. >> Don't push it, Boston. Break one nine. Breaker one nine. Minneapolis here. Anybody reading this? >> Winnipeg. Here you are. 5x5 Minneapolis. Loud and clear. >> It is so good to hear your voice, Winnipeg. How are you doing up there? >> Cold. >> Copy that.

The surface was still too cold and dark. to survive. The air was still toxic. But small trading parties would go from. colony to colony moving goods. [Music].

In just a few years, trade routes were. established. Every colony soon had. access to all the others. The martial law that first organized the. colonies naturally fell back to elected. leadership and cooperation. This was. more than survival. This was. civilization. [Music].

The story began with a single asteroid. Apous. That threat led us to a hidden. history of cosmic impacts and the. terrifying realization that thousands of. other city killers are still out there. So, let's separate fact from fiction. Fact: Apous is no longer a threat. The. initial 2.7% impact probability was. real, but current data says it will miss. us and the gravitational keyhole in. 2029. Probably.

fact, we can move asteroids. NASA's Dart. mission proved it. The kinetic impactor. worked. But because asteroids aren't. solid, there's no way to predict the. outcome. Fact, a major impact happened in human. history. The evidence for the younger. dest,00. years ago is overwhelming. Platinum. spikes, nano diamonds, and the black mat. point to a fragmented comet that reset. civilization. It's not a question of. will it happen again, but when. and the.

big fiction. We're perfectly safe. We. are not. But we can change that. For 4.5. billion years, life on this planet has. been at the mercy of random cosmic. violence. That's no longer true. We're. the first species in Earth's history. capable of seeing the threat coming and. the first with the power to stop it. The. question is no longer about ability. It's about will. Apous was transformed. into a symbol of fear. I think that's a.

good thing. These objects should inspire. fear. One medium-sized asteroid releases. more energy than all the nuclear weapons. in the world. We need to pressure our. leaders and the scientific community to. take this seriously. Apous will be here. in a few years. It'll be hard to ignore. a mountain zipping across the sky. I. hope it becomes the wakeup call we. desperately need because we have two. choices. Be motivated by the disaster. that almost happened or be ignorant of. the disaster that definitely will.

[Music]. Blue sky just a patch above Boulder, Colorado. Real blue. The first clear sky.

to cut through the green haze that. covered Earth for almost two decades. 18 years after impact to the day, the. first baby was born above ground. Dawn. Mitchell of the Boulder Colony. Well, I. guess technically she's from Boulder, Colorado. The first child in a. generation to grow up with a clear sky. overhead. Not concrete and rebar sky. Of course, Dawn doesn't remember any of. this. Dawn doesn't understand the irony. and importance of her name. All.

10-year-old Dawn knows is that she's a. celebrity and she loves it. She's here. to celebrate her birthday and the 10th. anniversary of Sky Day, as we now call. it, and the opening of the Catalina. Crater Memorial. Wow, 10 years went. fast. It took 18 years for the dust to. settle, literally. Atmospheric models. said 50 years. They were wrong. Earth. heals faster than we calculated. When. the sun returned, the Earth warmed. quickly. The extra CO2 in the atmosphere. saw to that. The plants loved the CO2.

By the time humans had the courage to. take off their helmets, nature was. already back in full swing. Grass, trees, green everywhere. Most of the planet's infrastructure was. destroyed, but the Swallbard seault. survived. Norway's ice protected it. After the impact, our ancestors had to. reorganize society down here in these. metro tunnels to survive. >> About 6 months after Sky Day, the first.

wheat harvest came in. 8,000 tons. Enough to feed thousands of people real. bread. Not mushroom paste, not fungus. cakes. Actual bread. My colony had to. wait almost a year for our wheat. rations. But for fresh baked bread, it. was worth the wait. Nobody who lived. through the impact is on a low carb. diet. I promise you that. >> And this children is what scientists. call an extinction level event. The. thermal pulse alone would be. devastating.

>> Almost 80% of animals are gone. Extinct. Elephants, rhinos, hippos. Just about. every large mammal too big or too slow. to find cover is gone. Dawn won't miss. the elephants, but a lot of us older. folks will. Cities rose again, but different. Every building has a deep bunker. Impact. shelters are mandatory. School children.

run drills every month. Asteroid. warning, 90 seconds to shelter. They. practice in the dark. They practice. holding their breath. They practice. saying goodbye. >> I love you. >> I'm not going to make it. Stay safe. I. love you so much. >> I hope you're safe. Me and the boys are. heading east. I hope you get this. I. love you more than anything. >> Mom, please text me back. I'm so scared. >> I wish I could tell you. I'm sorry. I'm.

so sorry. >> The memorial at Catalina stretches. around the entire crater. 12 miles of. black granite. 4 billion names. Where is grandpa's name? >> The International Apous Detection Grid. went online last year. 10,000. satellites, armed ground stations are in. every continent. If an object larger. than a basketball gets within a million. miles of us, we can see it. Our ground. and space-based rail guns can kill it.

It took a third of the Earth's wealth to. build the system. But with 4 billion. dead, nobody complained about the cost. The grid is there to make sure that no. matter what the universe throws at us, we'll never worry. The memorial is here to make sure that. our children never forget. Happy Sky Day. [Music].

[Music]. Echoish right there. Yeah. >> There's a heckle fish. Yeah. Oh my. goodness. There he is. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. You want to give him a kiss like. you always do? Yeah. You always give. heckish a kiss. Oh, that's so nice. Oh, yeah. Give heckish hugs. Say, "Thanks, Heckish." Thanks, AJ.

Oh, it's so good. Yeah. That's so good. That's so good of you. Yeah. Thank you, Heckleish. Thanks, AJ. >> Thank you so much for hanging out today. I'm AJ. There's Hecklefish.

>> Yeah, hanging shift. >> This has been the W Files. If you had. fun or learned anything and you're not. scared to death, do us a favor, hit. like, subscribe, share, or comment. That. stuff used to help out the channel a. lot. Not sure if it does anymore. And. like most topics we cover here on the. channel, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you want to hear, a story you want to learn more about, go. to the wfiles.com/tips. or send me an email and we'll get right. on that. Remember, the Wild Files is. also a podcast. Twice a week I post deep. dives into the stories we cover here on.

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It's a really supportive community. It's. a lot of fun and it's free to join. Now, if you want to know what's going on with. the W files at any given time, you can. check out our production calendar. It's. the wfiles.com/cal. We post our episode schedule, podcast, live streams, all that stuff. A special. thanks to our patrons who made this. channel possible. Every episode of the Y. files is dedicated to our Patreon. members. Could not have done this. without you. Still out of the first. maybe 100 members, I think 95 of them. are still with us and you guys are the. heart of the channel. Now, if you'd like.

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people. Another great way to support the. channel is grab something from the Wi-Fi. store. Grab a heck of a t-shirt or one. of these festival coffee mugs. You can. stick your fist in. H. You might as well. get your fists in because the asteroid's. coming to wipe us all out. You might as. well have yourself a good time with your. fist and your mug in your beverage or. whatever you're going to do with it or a. hoodie or something my face on it or get. one of these creepy YouTube dolls or a. squeezy edible stuff to. but if you're going to buy merch make. sure you become a member on YouTube. I. know I know another membership but hear.

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do it. Until next time, be safe, be. kind, and know that you are appreciated. [Music]. Oh. yeah, I play in Area 51. A secret code inside. the Bible said I would.

I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as. well as music singing like I should. But then another conspiracy theory. becomes the truth my friends. and it never ends. No, it never ends. [Music].

I feel the crab cat. I got stuck inside. home with MK out of being only true. Did Stanley Cubrick fake the moon. landing alone on a film set? I would. shadow people there. The Roswell alas just fought the smiling. man, I'm told. and his name was cold. And I can't. agree. I'm dancing with the fish and the.

fish on Thursday night when they. all through the night. All I ever wanted was to hear the truth. The world was all through the night. [Music].

The Mman sidings and the solar storm. still come to the secret city. underground. Mysterious number stations, planet. circle to project star gave where the. dark watchers found. in a simulation. Don't you worry though. the black night satellite over me. Oh, I.

can't believe I'm dancing with the fish. on Thursday night when they change you. and my family through the night. All I ever wanted was to hear the truth. One more. through the night. Thursday night when they change you and.

my. life. All I ever wanted was to be the truth. The world beauty. [Music]. loves to dance.

Girl loves to dance on the dance floor. because she is a camel. You can't love. dance when the feeling is right. in time. [Music]. [Music].