And if I’m wrong may we all be horribly crushed from above somehow.

In worst case conditions, this would be roughly .1% of that yield. Cosmic firecracker.

enjoy the “light show”!

The impactor had an estimated diameter of 10 km (6.2 mi) and delivered an estimated 96 teratons of TNT (4.0×1017 MJ).[21] By contrast, the most powerful man-made explosive device ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba, had a yield of only 50 megatons of TNT (2.1×1011 MJ),[22] making the Chicxulub impact 2 million times more powerful. [wikipedia]

This airburst would be about a third of Tsar Bomba, probably.

If anyone ever wants nightmares, read the ‘Effects’ section on that page.

But sorry, I’ll go with NASA on this one:

If a rocky asteroid the size of 2011 MD were to enter Earth’s atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth’s surface.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-192

June 23, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is on track to begin the first extended visit to a large asteroid. The mission expects to go into orbit around Vesta on July 16 and begin gathering science data in early August. Vesta resides in the main asteroid belt and is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that fall to Earth.

The chicxulub meteor is estimated to 10km diameter! It wiped out the large dinosaurs, but not the small ones or the mammals.

I’ve often wondered — and asked others … if you were going to die on some given day and either the day before or after an asteroid would slam into earth… would you want to die before after that asteroid hit?

This airburst would be 0.0003 Tsar Bombas.

I hope nobody got the news asteroid Winner was coming with the exaggerated claims of death for all and now faces decisions based on bad reporting.

Please scour the internets for me to find funny stories of people who thought the world was going to end and had a really good time.

I’ve often wondered — and asked others … if you were going to die on some given day and either the day before or after an asteroid would slam into earth… would you want to die before after that asteroid hit?

Wait, the choice is to die the day before or the day after a giant Earth-destroying asteroid hit the Earth? The day after, of course, since you must have hooked me up with some awesome life-support to live on another full day!

Of course, if, in the more mundane interpretation of your question, the asteroid does not destroy the Earth (you don’t specify), then, meh. I guess the day before, as otherwise you’re dealing with the anguish of reading about the couple thousand who died in the morning paper.

First there’s the curiosity – it would be neat to see what happened.

Second, there’s the significance. Dying in the biggest event in human history seems better somehow than missing it and going out in a whimper.

And third there’s the camaraderie. It seems like it would be nice to go out with a united humanity.

I don’t understand anyone who would prefer to die before the asteroid hit, unless it was just a question of mode of death.

The fear of a horrible death by heat or fire or getting crushed or choking on ash or the anarchistic collapse of society.

You’re talking about apocolypse sex, right? Yes, I thought so.

We all know deep down somewhere that on one otherwise fine day sometime in the future that something will hit.

So keep watching the sky!

For more, see :

http://www.universetoday.com/

or maybe not. Who can say for sure?

IMHO, there IS some huge asteroid, comet, gigantic meteor with our name on it. Just a matter of time. There’s a lot of stuff out there in space. Maybe its time to fire up the giant nuclear laser beams and blast those suckers.

Or not.