So say NASA finds out for 100% certainty that earth was going to get hit by an unstoppable meteor or whatever in 12 months time that would destroy earth and no one would survive.

Whats the very next thing that happens? Does the public find out straight away?

Does everyone cooperate and all resources go into planning habitation on the moon? would there be enough time? who would get to go?

Do kids keep going to school? economy crashes? crime increases?

What if it was only a week away? month? 5 years? 25 years? 200 years?

We adapt.

Our current technology has been tracking extraterrestrial objects and watching for these near-Earth events (or whatever they are called) for quite some time, and it is advanced enough that our time frame is much higher than weeks and months. I will go with five years.

Based on history, if on January 1st, 2017, NASA found out we had five years, then the wealthiest individuals (the handful of super-rich who could afford it) would be frantically booking private space flights stocked with supplies, and we wouldn't know a damn thing until it was too late.

I disagree. I think technology is close enough to try and steer the asteroid away (blowing it up is said to be the worst thing to do, but I think even that might be tried as a last resort).

I also question that a catastrophic asteroid couldn't slip through our detection methods. I believe I read somewhere that we do have blind spots and even a catastrophic asteroid could come out of nowhere, or at least fast enough to where there would be no time to do anything.

In my personal opinion, if scientists discovered that such an unavoidable asteroid were just days, weeks, or months away from destroying human civilization, I think they should at least try and keep it classified. What possible good could come from creating world wide pandemonium? It would just lengthen human suffering imo.

There's no possible way to live on the moon for very long.

There are also too many civilians watching the skies for it to remain a secret for very long. It's not like somebody will discover it and get assassinated by the CIA before he can get to the newspapers like in the movies. It'll go out on twitter before the govt even knows the guy found it.

This is no doubt true, but I suspect it would be subject to "fake news" or filed under conspiracy theory for at least a little while. I guess what I'm saying is why not at least enjoy the best quality of life for as long as possible? And that would be by keeping the masses ignorant for as long as possible. Unless of course, there were some way (or at least some hope) of diverting it.

Sure, for a little while, but then other people with access to the right equipment would be checking the sky asap. The "little while" would probably be just a couple days.

And then it would be like the Purge movies for the next 11 months.

How did people react on the Titanic when they learned it was sinking? How did the Jews at Masada react when the Romans laid siege? Its not unknown for groups of humans to be in situations in which they know they are doomed. If you are curious how humans would react upon learning that their planet is doomed, look at similar but smaller scale situations that have occurred in the past.

We'd just burrow underground
Wherever we were
Lol at lots o spaceships to nowhere

That's a timeframe of a few hours. OP's scenario is several months, even years.

It would be like if you got it and someone wants it, you're going to have it taken away.

I guess we party hard yo.

May as well start practicing now.

Silimar to a DS question, but he gave us 100 years.
I guess lots of people would try really heard to save as many lives as possible; Maybe burrow underground on the other side of the earth to the impact. 1 year does not give enough time for Mars colonisation, where 100 years might.
Lots would just carry on as before. And lots would party/panic.

And in reality no 100% impact, maybe we can force it off course, or maybe NASA got its sums wrong. You can say NASA are correct, but that does not mean we are allowed to know that.

Any object that big that NASA can see, lots of other people will see too. And make the same calculations. The OP said 100%. Say it's 500 miles across. There's no escaping from that - everything dies.

Like it's 1999?

does the public find out right away? yes. important high level things (or controversies) have a fat tradition of somehow getting into the media. it seems like you just cant stop things from being known if its importance is high enough.

does everyone cooperate? no. i am one of those that would not cooperate, im gonna drink beer etc.

kids school? dont know.

n days away? dont know. but at some point all of the institutions you mention are no longer operating or functioning properly.

Well, that would be an interesting extreme of paternalism. I'd think we should let society decide for themselves how they want to spend their last days.

I WISH THIS WAS HYPOTHETICAL
BUT ITS NOW

we know now......nice knowing you folks

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...jones+channel+

hes very excited thses days

I would become a Baptist.

Technicly we already Do know that our Own Sun will Kill Us All if We don't Move . In about 5 billion years from now, the sun will begin to die.

As the Sun grows old, it will expand. As the core runs out of hydrogen and then helium, the core will contract and the outer layers will expand, cool, and become less bright. It will become a red giant star.

After this phase, the outer layers of the Sun will continue to expand. As this happens, the core will contract; the helium atoms in the core will fuse together, forming carbon atoms and releasing energy. The core will then be stable since the carbon atoms are not further compressible. Then the outer layers of the Sun drift off into space, forming a planetary nebula (a planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets), exposing the core.

Most of its mass will go to the nebula. The remaining Sun will cool and shrink; it will eventually be only a few thousand miles in diameter! The star is now a white dwarf, a stable star with no nuclear fuel. It radiates its left-over heat for billions of years. When its heat is all dispersed, it will be a cold, dark black dwarf - essentially a dead star (perhaps replete with diamonds, highly compressed carbon).


-http://www.enchantedlearning.com/sub...sundeath.shtml

So it's not so much a Question of if but rather, what are we doing to Move Human Kind further, IMO AI will be the next big break for better or worse, I think 1 day We won't need a human body just thoughts that will be Uploaded to everyone (You will be able to download and upload the Human Brain, eventually there won't be any more physical body's needed). . .

No need to wait that long. Andromeda is on schedule to collide with the Milky Way in only 4 billion years. Although it's very unlikely the sun or any planets in our solar system will be directly hit, the gravity effects will likely disrupt our orbit, or other orbits, enough to eff up the planet before nova time arrives.