• At least 20 pieces of a comet hit Jupiter on 7 July 1992, producing explosive fireworks and dark scars that fascinated astronomers throughout the world.

• Some comets are on suicide missions to the Sun, diving into our star and being consumed by it.

• Most of the impact craters on the Earth disappeared long ago, but a few of the relatively recent ones have been located from space.

• An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs when it hit the Earth 65 million years ago.

• If an asteroid or comet of about 10 kilometers in size hit the Earth, the horrific blast could generate overpowering ocean waves, block out the Sun's light and heat, ignite global wildfires, drench the land and sea with acid rain, and produce deadly volcanoes on the other side of the Earth.

• The Earth is immersed within a cosmic shooting gallery of potentially lethal, Earth-approaching asteroids that could collide with our planet and end civilization as we know it.

• The lifetime risk of your dying as the result of an asteroid striking the Earth is about the same as death from an airplane crash, but a lot more people would die with you during the cosmic impact.

• It is estimated that the Earth receives a direct hit by an asteroid about two kilometers in size every million years or so, resulting in a global catastrophe. […]