General Knowledge
Survive an Asteroid Strike Quiz
Tunguska, Chelyabinsk, DART — what happens when space rocks come for us
Tunguska, Chelyabinsk, DART — what happens when space rocks come for us
NASA's DART mission successfully altered the orbit of an asteroid in 2022 — proving for the first time that humans can deflect a space rock headed our way. The spacecraft slammed into Dimorphos at 22,530 km/h and shifted its orbital period by 32 minutes, ten times the minimum needed to count as a success. From the 65-million-year-old Chicxulub impactor that ended the dinosaurs to the 2013 Chelyabinsk fireball that shattered windows across Russia, this quiz covers everything you need to know about planetary defense, impact science, and how to think about the asteroid threat.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll cover the Chicxulub impactor and mass extinction, the 1908 Tunguska airburst, the 2013 Chelyabinsk event, NASA's DART kinetic impactor mission, near-Earth object classification, Apophis, the Torino Scale, planetary defense strategies including gravity tractors and nuclear standoff bursts, and what survival looks like at different impact scales.
The Tunguska event was a massive airburst over a remote part of Siberia on June 30, 1908. A space rock estimated at 50–80 metres across exploded 5–10 km above the ground with a force of roughly 12–15 megatons, flattening about 2,000 square kilometres of forest and toppling an estimated 80 million trees. Because the object exploded before hitting the ground, no crater was formed and there were no confirmed human deaths.
DART — the Double Asteroid Redirection Test — was a NASA planetary defense mission launched in November 2021. On September 26, 2022, the spacecraft intentionally collided with Dimorphos, the moonlet of the asteroid Didymos, at around 22,530 km/h. The impact changed Dimorphos's orbital period by 32 minutes, far exceeding the 73 seconds required for mission success. It was the first demonstration that a kinetic impactor can deflect an asteroid.
Yes, though the risk is low on any given human timescale. Scientists estimate that objects 1 km or larger — capable of mass casualties globally — hit Earth roughly every 500,000 years, while extinction-class impactors (10+ km) arrive every 100 million years or more. Astronomers have catalogued over 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 1 km, and none currently known is on a collision course. The bigger near-term concern is the roughly 40% of sub-140-metre objects that remain undiscovered.
Last updated: May 2026