Fire From Heaven

During the twentieth century, only two objects struck the earth with enough force to destroy a whole city. Each object, one in 1908 and one in 1947, struck isolated parts of Siberia. Not one human being was hurt on either occasion. Pure luck.

Opinions vary as to when the Earth will be at real risk from another meteorite. As a society, we seem to place enormous faith in the very few astronomers who claim to be able to predict these events. After all, everyone agrees that, ultimately, a doomsday strike is inevitable.

Your humble scribe, a nervous individual, places no trust in the witterings of optimistic pedagogues who quote centuries or millennia, rather than years or decades, as a potential time scale for such an event. He waits and on occasions he peers hesitantly upwards to the beyond, watching for fire from heaven.