Comet Impact

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So this is it. The end of the world.

Hundreds of comets...

each the size of a small island...

each carrying the force

of 1,000 nuclear warheads...

are about to come crashing... on to the earth.

We only have ourselves to blame.

My name is... Professor Neil Gant,

...I work for N.E.O.,

...NASA'S Near Earth Object Programme.

We track the debris of creation,

...the billions of comets and asteroids

...that still orbit our sun.

And you'll see that America's

very much in the line of fire...

Ourjob is to give advance

warning of potential earth impacts.

I can't sell your solution to the President

and he can't sell it to the American people.

I already let one disaster happen

...and now we face annihilation.

I do not know how this story will end

but it began a year ago,

How do you do little Princess?

How do you do Mr. Kelly?

Ladies and gentlemen this is the Captain,

we hope you've enjoyed yourflight with us today,

we should be landing in Shannon

in about ten minutes.

I'm the Queen of the Beach today,

all the Lords and Ladies said...

Ladies and gentlemen,

the fasten your seatbelts sign is on,

please remain in your seats while we await informa

of a change in weather conditions.

Please do not be alarmed.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly begin

...our descent into Shannon Airport.

Please remain in your seats at all times.

You need to adopt the brace position immediately

in preparation for emergency landing.

Abort landing, pull up, pull up!

This is it, the epicentre.

You've been a participant

in the biggest inter-dimensional cross-rip

since the Tunguska blast in 1908.

I'd like to get a sample of your brain tissue.

Come on guys, you know the movie,

who you gonna call?

Come on guys, is a big movie,

this is a great movie, is Bill Murray.

'Lost In Translation'

'Ghostbusters', is, is 'Ghostbusters'.

Sorry Professorthas before ourtime.

Right... ready? Listen up. Three, two, one...

Three to five miles up directly above our heads...

there was an airburst...

here trees... were incinerated,

stripped to the bone as the blast wave,

...moved vertically downwards.

Identical patterning was replicated in the 1950's.

...during atmospheric nucleartests.

Are you saying the event was nuclear?

No, no, but the effects were caused by

similar shockwaves.

Further out trees were felled because...

the blast wave was moving closer

to the horizontal when it reached them.

So what happened?

This is the expert.

Some people think it was an asteroid made of

rock or metal.

Some say it was a comet made of dust and ice.

Just a couple of hours later it would have

destroyed Moscow or St. Petersburg.

Every living being in a 25 mile radiusjust would

have been killed instantly.

Yeah. In living history this, the Tunguska event,

stands out as a rare, thank God,

demonstration that Doomsday scenario for

the human race... well is a real possibility.

This is Gant, yeah. Hey Frank...

Is NASA.

No we've been out in the woods for

the last three days,

we haven't heard of anything,

why, what happened?

I need you to contact my boyfriend,

I can't get through to him on his mobile.

He was meant to meet me at Shannon Airport.

Well... maybe the networks arejust down, so...

No, my mobile works, so does hers.

We were ten feet above the runway

when the wave hit.

We could have aquaplaned into Shannon.

- Are you okay to report? - Yeah.

Well they evacuated the airport didn't they?

Look I, I'm sure that he, he got out in time.

Really I... I'm sorry, excuse me.

No, no, I'm going, I'm gonna try and get

back out there today.

We'll get a camera crew on standby.

The Tsunami travelled across the Atlantic ocean

at speeds of over 500 miles per hour.

...slamming into coastal areas and

racing inland with little or no warning.

The wave heights have been reported

as high as 120 feet,

...a surging mass of water engulfing an area

over 3,000 square miles.

Officials in Dublin have estimated

the initial death toll... at over 10,000.

The President will be issuing a full statement

in the next few hours.

Our initial data strongly suggests that

the Tsunami was caused by a near earth object...

impacting into the Atlantic Ocean

...300 miles off the Irish Coast.

Over 30,000 people are now homeless and

hundreds of thousands of people remain missing.

NASAwill be launching a full enquiry

into this event.

We're sending out a specialist team from

...N.E.O.,

our Near Earth Object Programme,

to determine the source and composition

of the impact object.

What we're talking about here

...is either an asteroid,

which is essentially a rock or metal based body,

or a comet,

which is composed mainly of ice and

embedded dust particles.

We don't yet know exactly where it came from.

Sir, with all our satellite technology and radar

telescopes, how come nobody saw this coming?

Within 24 hours we were on a plane to Ireland

desperate to find the answer.

We were to be met by Professor Brendan Kelly,

eminent astro physicist from Queen's College.

- Hi, Professor Kelly?

- Oh right, Brendan will do.

- Josh Hayden. - Hi, Josh

Neil Gant.

Hayden and Gant eh?

You sound like a couple of outlaws.

- Or lawyers.

- Yeah same thing in my book.

This is Tam Ly our resident Tsunami expert.

Sent by the Gods.

In fact by the University of Tokyo.

You're not from Japan?

No, no, I'm originally from Vietnam,

I did my MSC in America, Santa Cruz.

Brendan's expertise was in...

the microscopic particles left overfrom

the creation of our solar system.

You know the thing about dust...

Yeah, dust is so important.

Hey, evolution of dust traces our path through

the universe.

You mean the accumulation of dust?

I know what I mean. I'm the King of Dust!

When do you think we'll be able to

get down to the coast?

Ah access is restricted at the minute,

we'll go to Shannon tomorrow,

see if we can get authorisation.

I'll put a call in, get NASAto

pull some strings for us.

Right, make yourself at home.

We've been trying to collate some incoming

evidence, seismic data, barometric readings.

Lot of stuff coming in from India.

You know we're gonna have to

give this N.E.O. A name.

Well, isn't that thejob of the

Minor Planet Centre?

Oh they're down in Massachusetts,

anyway we need a standby,

something a little more media friendly than... 'un

- No I was thinking of... What?

- Rockall.

Rockall. Is the sea area the comet hit,

is a little Island about 250 miles

north west of Donegal.

- Rockall... - Is a good idea Brendan.

Here you go.

Hey, where did you get these images?

American Military Reconnaissance,

but we're gonna need a lot more data than this if

we're gonna get a handle on Rockall's trajectory.

Find out where it came from...

and why we missed it.

All we had had was an approximate impact site in t

what we needed was an accurate trajectory to

tell us where it came from.

- Anyone for curry?

- No thanks Brendan.

Forget fish, curry's the thing for your brain.

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