Actually, the expectation of the earth being hit by a rock from outer space is about 0.99999999, given that we are hit by millions of tiny ones every day, with a statistical distribution such that we get hit by a larger one less often, and a much larger one much less often, and really big and nasty ones only ever 65,000,000 years or so. It’s pretty certain that we will be hit by something big enough to destroy a large building every X thousands of years, X somewhere between 1 and 10, I think. And something large enough to destroy a small city, maybe with X between 100 and 1000, etc. Fortunately 3/4 of these will land in the ocean, which pretty well absorbs the smaller ones, but the really big ones can cause huge damage even from indirect effects.

Same as all of us folks living in Los Angeles, when we know there will be a 7+ earthquake, and probably within 100 years, and it won’t be fun at all.

We can live with big risks, but they are not zero.

In fact, there is a low-key project to at least track large asteroids, meteors, and other such dangerous objects. We’ve already tracked the hugest ones, of course, but now we try to track everything down to about six foot boulders, or whatever we can see, actually. And, to develop or repurpose existing weapons so we could divert anything we see coming. It’s quite serious. It will happen. Probably not anytime soon, but it’s the size of the pot that’s scary, and does justify reasonable precautions.

OK, carry on.