In Armageddon, a rogue asteroid is broken into fragments by a nuclear bomb that is somehow inserted into it by, among others, an oil driller played by Bruce Willis – though it’s not all good news: Shanghai is obliterated by another meteor strike along the way.
2024 YR4, a lump of rock the size of a building, may be heading our way, but don’t start stockpiling the tinned carrots yet.
The year 1998 came with its share of global calamities, but the notion of a world war seemed far away compared with today, which may be one reason why two big films about asteroids then played to packed cinemas.
Scientists calculate that its impact could be similar to that of the Tunguska asteroid, which flattened an area more than double the size of New York in Siberian forest in 1908.
If it landed in central London, windows 20 miles away in Slough would be broken – an event that would exceed the wildest dreams even of John Betjeman, who once wrote a rather mean poem about the town.
