607: Asteroid Apophis is Coming | Ground Zero: California

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Why Files: Operation Podcast - Episode 607: "Asteroid Apophis is Coming | Ground Zero: California"

Release Date: August 12, 2025

---

Introduction

In Episode 607 of The Why Files: Operation Podcast, the narrative delves into the impending threat posed by asteroid Apophis and the ensuing societal breakdown as humanity grapples with the imminent impact. The episode intricately weaves scientific facts with a dramatized fictional account, exploring themes of fear, panic, and the fragility of societal structures in the face of cosmic disasters.

---

Discovery and Early Warnings

The story commences on June 19, 2004, when two astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory detect a moving object against the stars, initially cataloged as 2004 MN4. This discovery rapidly gains global attention as observatories worldwide track the asteroid, revealing its substantial size—1480 feet long, larger than the Empire State Building—and its potential danger.

"The asteroid was big, 1480ft long. Larger than the Empire State Building."
— Narrator [00:05]

By December of that year, scientists alarmingly announce a 2.7% chance of impact on April 13, 2029, a 1 in 37 probability. This places Apophis at a 4 on the Torino scale, the first object to ever reach such a level, indicating a significant threat.

"Apophis was the first object in history to reach that level. This was bad."
— Narrator [00:35]

---

Media Frenzy and Initial Scientific Efforts

The media responds with sensationalism, featuring countdown clocks and headlines dubbing Apophis the "God of chaos." However, in 2005, scientists initially announce that Apophis will miss Earth, only to uncover a critical detail: a gravitational keyhole in space. If Apophis traverses this narrow region, Earth's gravity could alter its trajectory, ensuring a collision in a subsequent pass.

"A 1200 foot region of space that will bend Apophis trajectory. Bend it directly into Earth."
— Narrator [04:02]

---

Governmental Crisis and Societal Collapse

As the reality of an impending impact sets in, governmental structures begin to falter. The President makes an emergency announcement confirming the impact, leading to mass evacuations. However, resources quickly deplete, and societal order descends into chaos.

"We've now entered the final phase. Apophis will strike Earth on April 13th. Prepare accordingly."
— President [05:21]

The collapse is marked by the dissolution of law enforcement agencies, like the Los Angeles Police Department, and the rise of gang-controlled checkpoints providing rudimentary order. The wealthy and powerful evacuate first, leaving the less fortunate to face the catastrophe with minimal resources.

"The 405 belongs to the Crips now. Their blue flags fly over improvised roadblocks."
— President [12:18]

---

Scientific Challenges and Additional Threats

Amidst the turmoil, scientists grapple with unpredictable factors influencing Apophis's trajectory, notably the Yarkovsky effect—a subtle force resulting from solar radiation impacting the asteroid. This effect causes tiny yet cumulative changes in Apophis's orbit, increasing the uncertainty of its path.

"NASA's own measurements show it's already drifting because of this effect, about 650ft closer to us every year."
— Narrator [08:22]

Adding to the peril, the narrative introduces another celestial threat: asteroid 2024 yr 4, heightening the urgency for international cooperation in planetary defense. Despite these efforts, the episode underscores a significant detection gap, leaving humanity vulnerable to sudden impacts.

"NASA estimates there are 25,000 city killers crossing our orbit. And they've only found half."
— Narrator [50:51]

---

Final Days and Impact

As the impact date approaches, societal structures continue to crumble. Power grids fail, communication systems break down, and humanity faces the cataclysmic event with a mixture of resignation and panic. The episode details the moments leading up to the collision, highlighting personal stories of loss and the overwhelming scale of destruction.

"The emergency alert system broadcasts its final message."
— Narrator [17:07]

Apophis makes its final approach, visible as a massive, tumbling celestial body. The subsequent impact unleashes unprecedented devastation:

• Thermal Pulse: A blinding flash vaporizes structures within a 100-mile radius.
• Blast Wave: A superheated air wall travels at 800 mph, devastating urban landscapes.
• Seismic Activity: An earthquake measuring 10.5 on the Richter scale ripples through the earth.
• Tsunami: A 150-meter high wave obliterates Los Angeles, engulfing entire districts in moments.

"The President: What hit LA was no wave. It was a moving cliff of ocean. 150 meters high, traveling faster than fire."
— President [53:08]

---

Aftermath and Reflection

In the wake of the disaster, the podcast reflects on the global impact, with entire regions erased and the societal fabric irreparably damaged. The episode draws parallels to historical events like the Younger Dryas impact, emphasizing the potential for civilization-resetting catastrophes.

"This was a civilization reset. Comets are different from asteroids and far more dangerous."
— Narrator [12:42]

The narrative concludes with a somber reminder of humanity's vulnerability and the thin line between survival and extinction in the vastness of space.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• "Apophis was the first object in history to reach that level. This was bad."
  Narrator [00:35]

• "A 1200 foot region of space that will bend Apophis trajectory. Bend it directly into Earth."
  Narrator [04:02]

• "We've now entered the final phase. Apophis will strike Earth on April 13th. Prepare accordingly."
  President [05:21]

• "NASA's own measurements show it's already drifting because of this effect, about 650ft closer to us every year."
  Narrator [08:22]

• "The 405 belongs to the Crips now. Their blue flags fly over improvised roadblocks."
  President [12:18]

• "This was a civilization reset. Comets are different from asteroids and far more dangerous."
  Narrator [12:42]

• "From Phoenix to Vegas. People saw it light up the sky. It didn't look like fire. It looked like a second sun. Then the horizon vanished."
  President [47:30]

---

Conclusion

Episode 607 of The Why Files: Operation Podcast offers a gripping exploration of an asteroid-induced apocalypse, blending scientific discourse with a dramatic portrayal of societal collapse. Through detailed storytelling and impactful quotes, the episode underscores the existential threats posed by near-Earth objects and the precariousness of human civilization in the face of cosmic calamities.

---

Disclaimer: The events and scenarios described in this episode are fictional and intended for illustrative purposes.

Transcript

[Narrator]

On April 13, 2029, an asteroid named Apophis will come within 19,000 miles of Earth. It will fly under our communication satellites. It'll be visible to the naked eye. NASA says we're safe. But on a cosmic scale, 19,000 miles is nothing. A nudge from solar wind, a tap from another asteroid, or a simple miscalculation is all it would take. We already know where it would hit. We know what would happen. Apophis is coming. And it's a killer. The story begins on June 19, 2004. Two astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory found a faint dot moving against the stars. They logged it as 2004 MN4 and went back to work. Within weeks, observatories around the world were tracking it. The more data they collected, the more concerned they became. This asteroid's path looked like it might intersect with Earth's. The picture got clearer and scarier. The asteroid was big, 1480ft long. Larger than the Empire State Building. In December, scientists made A shocking announcement. 2004 MN4 had a 2.7% chance of hitting Earth on April 13, 2029. A 1 in 37 chance of impact. 67 million tons of rock and metal were roaring toward us at 19 miles per second. The asteroid was officially named Apophis, the Egyptian serpent, God of darkness and destruction. It was rated a 4 on the Torino scale. Yeah, Torino scale. The clinicians would have met that. No, no. The Torino scale measures the hazard of an impact. Ah, that makes more sense. A zero on the Torino scale means no threat. A ten means no planet. Even a four is a concern. Apophis was the first object in history to reach that level. This was bad. The media went wild. Headlines screamed about the God of chaos. Cable news ran countdown clocks. Were there countdown clocks more accurate than their election predictions? No, but scientists worked around the clock. In 2005, they announced Apophis would miss the Earth. But they found a new problem. A region in space about half a mile wide. If Apophis passes through it, the chance of impact on the next pass isn't 2.7%. It's 100%. Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 3am looks abandoned. Most buildings are dark. But in the center for Near Earth Object Studies, Marsha Singh stares at her monitor. She's running the Yarkovsky drift calculations for the third time. Solar radiation pressure on rotating asteroids causes tiny changes in orbit. Tiny changes that add up over decades.

[Billy]

This can't be right.

[Narrator]

The numbers came back wrong again. Apophis isn't following its predicted path. The deviation is small. 0.003 degrees. But that's. The asteroid will thread Earth's gravitational keyhole. A 1200 foot region of space that will bend Apophis trajectory. Bend it directly into Earth. Outside Los Angeles sleeps 14 million people who don't know they have 90 days left. The impact models show Catalina island as ground zero. Billy, check the path of 2004mn4.

[Billy]

Are you seeing this?

[Narrator]

Hang on. Oh my God. What are you going to do? I have to call the President. Marsha, go home. Be with your family.

[Billy]

We now go to the White House where the President is about to make an emergency announcement.

[President]

My fellow Americans, I speak to you now with a heavy heart.

[Billy]

CBS News can now confirm that asteroid Apophis will hit Earth on April 13.

[President]

This is a Fox News alert. NASA says the asteroid Apophis will impact Earth on April 13.

[Billy]

Global preparations are underway.

[President]

Apophis will hit near California on April 13.

[Billy]

Coastal regions are urged to prepare for immediate evacuation. The Department of Homeland Security has activated emergency protocols.

[President]

We've now entered the final phase. Apophis will strike Earth on April 13th. Prepare accordingly.

[Narrator]

I've tried a lot of things to break old habits. Most felt like a chore. But when I tried Fume, it just made sense. Fume is an award winning zero nicotine flavored air device. Natural Fresh lab tested for safety and it cost about a third of your bad habit. No wonder it's trusted by over half a million customers. If you're among the 50% of people who try to kick vaping each year, you need the right tools for the job. And nothing beats Fume. What really stood out to me is how satisfying it feels. The weighted sleek design and subtle click keep my hands busy and my mind at ease. And then there's the flavor. Right now I'm loving the mango core. Fruity fresh, tangy, with just a hint of mint. Perfect for that summer afternoon. Pick me up. Fume has already helped over half a million people take steps towards better habits. And now it's your turn. Use our code wide to get a free gift with your journey. Pack head to try fume.com that's trifun.com and use code wide to claim this limited time offer. Today on Friday, April 13, 2029, humanity will witness something beautiful and dangerous. Oh, sounds like my second wife. If you're gonna interrupt me right at the top, can you at least make the joke a little less hacky? You're the straight man. Leave the comedy to the professional, huh? Apophis will pass just 19,300 miles from Earth's surface. That's closer than our communication satellites. For millions of people in the Eastern Hemisphere, it will appear at sunset, a bright point of light, as bright as any star. But this star will be moving fast. So fast you'll see it cross the sky in real time. From the ground. The event will be a spectacle. But for Apophis, the flyby will be violent. As it passes, Earth's gravity will grab it, squeeze it, and twist it. These tidal forces could trigger landslides and quakes on the asteroid's surface, changing its path. This brings us to the keyhole. A gravitational keyhole is a small region of space for Apophis. It's only about 2,000ft wide. If the asteroid passes through it in 2029, Earth's gravity becomes a slingshot. It'll pull the asteroid back to where it started for a guaranteed impact on April 13, 2036, Easter Sunday. Current calculations, based on years of radar data from Goldstone and Arecibo, show Apophis will miss the keyhole. Barely, Unless something changes. And that's what makes Apophis so dangerous. It's not solid rock. It's a collection of boulders and dust held together by gravity. And it's not a sphere. It's shaped like a skyscraper. So it has no primary axis. It doesn't rotate, it tumbles. This chaotic motion makes subtle forces almost impossible to predict. The most important thing is the Yarkovsky effect. The sun heats one side of the asteroid. As it tumbles, that heat radiates back into space. And this creates thrust. Hold on, hold on. Not everybody's Mike the Grass Tyson. That's. That's not a. How does that make thrust? Well, the heat causes gas to vent, which creates the thrust. Ah, now I get it. I could also create thrust by venting gas. Pardon me. Classy. This is just a tiny push, about the weight of an apple. A tiny push is hardly noticeable, but over millions of miles, it can change in orbit. NASA's own measurements show it's already drifting because of this effect, about 650ft closer to us every year. Right now, Apophis is impossible to see. It's lost in the glare of the sun. It won't be visible again until 2027. And during this blind spot, a small nudge from another rock could alter its path completely. And we would have just two years to recalculate everything. And two years to prepare for. A city killer might be enough. But sometimes we only get hours. Sometimes city killers aren't found until they fly by. In fact, this happened last year. The president hasn't been seen in five days. His last public appearance was the announcement.

[President]

We have 90 days to solve this problem. America's best minds are working on it.

[Narrator]

Then he vanished. Official word secured at an undisclosed location. Everyone knew that meant Cheyenne Mountain. Anyone who had the means to escape didn't waste any time.

[President]

Once the risk hit X, they were gone. Politicians, celebrities, people you've watched your whole life. Evacuated while the highways jammed.

[Billy]

What we saw was an orderly panic among the ultra wealthy. Beverly Hills emptied almost overnight.

[President]

It was Beverly Hills first, no surprise there. Gulf streams and Learjets lined up like limos, taking off every 90 seconds.

[Billy]

The 405 is a graveyard of abandoned vehicles. Families walked for days into the Mojave.

[Narrator]

The poor headed to tent cities in Nevada desert camps with no water, no power, no plan, just distance from the coast.

[Billy]

Fuel ran out, roads clogged. Now tent cities rise like new towns, only no one planned them.

[President]

Three million people have fled Los Angeles in just 14 days.

[Narrator]

Three million people gone in two weeks. Gas hit $47 a gallon. Then the stations just closed. The tanker drivers stopped showing up. Why deliver fuel for worthless paper?

[Billy]

Markets remain volatile as the Apophis timeline advances. Commodities like iodine tablets for fuel and food stocks have surged in value.

[Narrator]

The new currency is water, ammunition, and insulin. A vial of insulin costs 3 gallons of water. If you can find it. We all got to watch Apophis grow larger in the sky. A red star visible during daylight, getting bigger every day. Suicide hotlines stopped answering. Too many calls. Not enough volunteers. The volunteers had their own lives to worry about.

[President]

Apophis, prepare for the light.

[Narrator]

Religious movements started sprouting up as the.

[President]

World edges closer to impact. Religious fervor has surged.

[Billy]

The church of the final days and the Apophis witnesses have emerged, offering hope and salvation for those who believe.

[Narrator]

Apophis, guide us to the light. When official authorities dissolved, the local population took control.

[Billy]

The Los Angeles Police Department dissolved last week. Over half the force simply didn't show up. The chain of command collapsed overnight.

[President]

The 405 belongs to the Crips now. Their blue flags fly over improvised roadblocks. They're not attacking rival crews. They're screening vehicles and controlling movement. Crips and Serenos are distributing food, rationing medicine, even setting curfews. Ma', am, it's not safe to be out.

[Narrator]

If you need anything, Thing, check with me.

[Billy]

What used to be gang turf in Los Angeles has now hardened into checkpoint states. Neighborhoods that once feared violence are now relying on it for structure.

[President]

Call them gangs. Call them militias. But right now, they're the only thing resembling law and order in the city of Los Angeles.

[Narrator]

Society didn't collapse. It reorganized itself. The powerful fled. The poor waited. And Apophis kept coming. While some astronomers celebrated, another rock caused global panic. In late 2024, asteroid 2024 yr 4 became the most dangerous object in modern history. A building sized rock. Its impact probability kept climbing 1.5%, then 2.8%, then over 3%. That threat prompted China to establish its first ever planetary defense unit. They're recruiting astrophysicists under age 35. Their 2030 mission will try to deflect asteroid 2015 XF261 using a dual spacecraft approach. One to impact another to evaluate the results. International cooperation is growing. Because the truth is, we have no idea what's coming. NASA estimates there are 25,000 city killers crossing our orbit. And they've only found half. 13,500 are still out there somewhere. Completely hidden. Somewhere completely hidden, huh? You mean like the moon landing tapes? This detection gap creates nightmare scenarios. In 2019, asteroid 2019 OK was found. It's 400ft wide. It was spotted less than 24 hours. Its closest approach. It missed Earth by only 40,000 miles. A direct hit would have released 30 megatons of energy. That's 300 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb. All with less than a day's warning. The problem is the sun. Our telescopes have to look away from the sun. Objects approaching from that direction remain invisible until they hit us. Like in 2013. The meteor that hit Chelyabinx. NASA's NEO Surveyor telescope is set to launch in 2027. It will finally close this blind spot. It'll use infrared and should find 90% of the remaining city killers within 10 to 20 years. But until then, we're defenseless against an attack from the direction of the sun. To understand how devastating that kind of surprise can be, you don't even have to look up. You can look down. Because buried in a layer of sediment around the world is evidence of an impact that reset civilization. The last Chinook lifted off from UCLA Medical center at 6am Doctors stood on the helipad watching it disappear. They had patients on ventilators, premature babies in incubators. They were not leaving.

[Billy]

LAX has gone silent. No departures, no arrivals. Just grounded planes and flickering monitors. The terminals are empty now.

[President]

The last jet out of LAX lifted off at 2:17pm United to Denver. It was half full. Those who could afford to leave already had.

[Narrator]

Those who remained made their choice. The Elderly couple in Brentwood who'd lived there 50 years. They sat on their porch holding hands. They weren't leaving either.

[Billy]

For those still in Los Angeles, officials have confirmed that all remaining power will be shut off today at exactly noon.

[President]

The blackout is deliberate to reduce fire risk after the strike.

[Billy]

Please take this time to shelter and remain off the streets.

[Narrator]

The power grid shut down at noon. Controlled shutdown to prevent fires after impact. The emergency alert system broadcasts its final message.

[President]

Seek shelter. Stay away from windows. God bless America.

[Narrator]

Then Static Maggie Powers, an ICU nurse, writes her patients names on their foreheads with a Sharpie. She figures when the building collapses, someone should know who they are. She has 14 patients on ventilators. The backup generators have 30 hours of fuel. That means her patients only have 30 hours of life. Animals flee inland. Coyotes run through downtown. Birds fly east in massive flocks. Dogs howl constantly. Every animal except humans understands what the receding ocean means.

[Billy]

Scientists warn this is not a tide. It's a gravitational response. Something massive is pulling on the ocean.

[President]

The Pacific has pulled back over 20ft since yesterday, like it's holding its breath. Entire reefs are exposed.

[Billy]

Seismographs are now detecting microquakes, gravitational pulses every 90 seconds. They're weak but rhythmic.

[President]

Every 90 seconds, the earth flinches. Experts say it's the gravity of what's coming, literally. And the ocean is trying to warn us.

[Narrator]

The last text messages go out before the cell tower shut down. I love you is sent 847,000 times in Los Angeles County. Most messages are never delivered. Apophis filled three degrees of sky. You could see it tumbling end over end. A mountain in space. The last thing 50 million people would ever see. 12,800 years ago, Earth was emerging from the last Ice age. Temperatures were warming. Massive ice sheets were melting. Then suddenly, everything reversed. A comet about 62 miles wide broke apart and bombarded the planet. The evidence is found in a thin layer of rock found across four continents. The Younger Dryas boundary layer, also referred to as the black mat. The black mat contains evidence called impact proxies. Iridium, shocked quartz, nanodiamonds, microscopic spherules of melted rock. At over 40 sites. The concentrations of impact proxies are millions of times above normal levels. All date back to exactly 12,800 years ago. A series of objects hit the North American ice sheet, causing mass flooding. Continents sank beneath the sea. The impacts triggered global wildfires. Then came the freeze. Ooh, a song of ice and fire. Yes. The freeze lasted 1200 years. That's how long it's Going to take George Martin to finish the books. The devastation was total. Mammoths, mastodons, saber toothed cats, American horses, all gone. 75% of North American megafauna went extinct. Two thirds of the human population disappeared. The first widespread human culture in North America vanished from the archaeological record. This wasn't climate change. This wasn't over hunting. This was a civilization reset. Comets are different from asteroids and far more dangerous. Asteroids follow predictable paths. Comets arrive from the outer solar system. They have long elliptical orbits so they can show up with little warning and sometimes as little as six months. As I write this, Comet 3I Atlas is headed our way. It was spotted a few weeks ago. It'll make its closest approach to Earth in December. That's fast. So fast, there is not a thing we can do but watch and wait. Asteroids hit Earth at 19 miles per second. Comets come in at 45. A comet delivers more than nine times the destructive power than an asteroid of the same size. The most dangerous comet we know is Swift Tuttle, 16 miles wide. A land impact would release energy 27 times greater than the Chicxulub dinosaur killer. One astronomer called it the single most dangerous object known to humanity. Now, despite what mainstream scientists say, asteroids hit Earth all the time. But what about comets? How often do they hit us? Every hundred million years? Every 10 million years? One million years? Nope. Comets of all sizes hit the Earth on average every three days. The flash came first. The sky turns white. Not bright white. Everything within 100 miles ignites simultaneously. The thermal pulse travels at light speed. By the time your brain understood the flash, your body was already vapor. That's mercy. Instantaneous conversion from matter to energy. The blast wave expanded at Mach 2. A wall of superheated air traveling 800 miles per hour. It flattened everything from from San Diego to Bakersfield.

[Billy]

The fireball climbed 60 miles into the atmosphere. So high it pierced the mesosphere. It was visible from space.

[President]

From Phoenix to Vegas. People saw it light up the sky. It didn't look like fire. It looked like a second sun. Then the horizon vanished.

[Narrator]

Oh, my God.

[President]

Is that.

[Narrator]

Los Angeles?

[President]

The temperature of the plume exceeded 10,000 degrees Celsius. What erupted wasn't smoke. It was Earth itself, turned to gas. Seven states were hit by ejecta. It wasn't just ash. It was fragments of Earth's crust, fused and glowing. Some of it traveled faster than sound.

[Billy]

Chunks of vaporized ocean rose miles into the sky, then hardened midair before slamming down across the Southwest. Reports of burning fragments came in from as far as Colorado. It Rained fire.

[Narrator]

The earthquake was a 10.5 on the Richter scale. The ground rippled like water. Then silence. People were too frightened to notice. The Pacific Ocean was moving. On April 13, 2029, an asteroid named Apophis will come within 19,000 miles of Earth. It will fly under our communication satellites. It'll be visible to the naked eye. NASA says we're safe. But on a cosmic scale, 19,000 miles is nothing. A nudge from solar wind, a tap from another asteroid or a simple miscalculation is all it would take. We already know where it would hit. We know what would happen. Apophis is coming. And it's a killer. The story begins on June 19, 2004. Two astronomers at Kitt Peak Observatory found a faint dot moving against the stars. They logged it as 2004 MN4 and went back to work. Within weeks, observatories around the world were tracking it. The more data they collected, the more concerned they became. This asteroid's path looked like it might intersect with Earth's. The picture got clearer and scarier. The asteroid was big, 1480ft long. Larger than the Empire State Building. In December, scientists made a shocking.2004.mn4 had a 2.7% chance of hitting Earth on April 13, 2029. A 1 in 37 chance of impact.67 million tons of rock and metal were roaring toward us at 19 miles per second. The asteroid was officially named Apophis, the Egyptian serpent God of darkness and destruction. It was rated a 4 on the Torino scale. Torino scale? The Clint Eastwood event? That. No, no. The Torino scale measures the hazard of an impact. Ah, that makes more sense. A zero on the Torino scale means no threat. A ten means no planet. Even a four is a concern. Apophis was the first object in history to reach that level. This was bad. The media went wild. Headlines screamed about the God of chaos. Cable news ran countdown clocks. Were their countdown clocks more accurate than their election predictions? No. Uh huh. But scientists worked around the clock. In 2005, they announced Apophis would miss the Earth. But they found a new problem. A region in space about half a mile wide. If Apophis passes through it, the chance of impact on the next pass isn't too point seven percent. It's 100%. Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 3am looks abandoned. Most buildings are dark. But in the center for Near Earth object studies, Marsha Singh stares at her monitor. She's running the Yarkovsky drift calculations for the third time. Solar radiation pressure on rotating asteroids causes tiny changes in orbit. Tiny changes that add up over Decades.

[Billy]

This can't be right.

[Narrator]

The numbers came back wrong again. Apophis isn't following its predicted path. The deviation is small, 0.003 degrees, but that's enough. The asteroid will thread Earth's gravitational keyhole. A 1200 foot region of space that will bend Apophis trajectory. Bend it directly into Earth. Outside Los Angeles sleeps 14 million people who don't know they have 90 days left. The impact models show Catalina island as ground zero. Billy, check the path of 2004mn4.

[Billy]

Are you seeing this?

[Narrator]

Hang on. Oh, my God. What are you gonna do? I have to call the President. Marcia, go home. Be with your family.

[Billy]

We now go to the White House where the President is about to make an emergency announcement.

[President]

My fellow Americans, I speak to you now with a heavy heart.

[Billy]

CBS News can now confirm that Asteroid Apophis will hit Earth on April 13.

[President]

This is a Fox News alert. NASA says the asteroid Apophis will impact Earth on April 13.

[Billy]

Global preparations are underway.

[President]

Apophis will hit near California, California, on April 13.

[Billy]

Coastal regions are urged to prepare for immediate evacuation. The Department of Homeland Security has activated emergency protocols.

[President]

We've now entered the final phase. Apophis will strike Earth on April 13th. Prepare accordingly.

[Narrator]

On Friday, April 13th, 2029, humanity will witness something beautiful and dangerous. Oh, sounds like my second wife. If you're going to interrupt me right at the top. Can. Can you at least make the joke a little less hacky? You're the straight man. Leave the comedy to the professional, huh? Apophis will pass just 19,300 miles from Earth's surface. That's closer than our communication satellites. For millions of people in the Eastern Hemisphere, it will appear at sunset. A bright point of light. As bright as any star. But this star will be moving fast. So fast you'll see it cross the sky in real time. From the ground, the event will be a spectacle. But for Apophis, the flyby will be violent. As it passes, Earth's gravity will grab it, squeeze it and twist it. These tidal forces could trigger landslides and quakes on the asteroid surface, changing its path. This brings us to the keyhole. A gravitational keyhole is a small region of space. For Apophis, it's only about 2,000ft wide. If the asteroid passes through it in 2029, Earth's gravity becomes a slingshot. It'll pull the asteroid back to where it started for a guaranteed impact on April 13, 2036. Easter Sunday. Current calculations, based on years of radar data from Goldstone and Arecibo, show Apophis will miss the keyhole, barely, unless something changes. And that's what makes Apophis so dangerous. It's not solid rock. It's a collection of boulders and dust held together by gravity. And it's not a sphere. It's shaped like a skyscraper. So it has no primary axis. It doesn't rotate, it tumbles. This chaotic motion makes subtle forces almost impossible to predict. The most important thing is the Yarkovsky effect. The sun heats one side of the asteroid. As it tumbles, that heat radiates back into space, and this creates thrust. Hold on. Hold on. Not everybody is Mike the Grass Tyson. That's. That's not as. How does that make thrust? Well, the heat causes gas to vent, which creates the thrust. Ah, now I get it. I could also create thrust by venting gas. Pardon me. Classy. This is just a tiny push about the weight of an apple. A tiny push is hardly noticeable, but over millions of miles, it can change in orbit. NASA's own measurements show it's already drifting because of this effect, about 650ft closer to us every year. Right now, Apophis is impossible to see. It's lost in the glare of the sun. It won't be visible again until 2027. And during this blind spot, a small nudge from another rock could alter its path completely. And we would have just two years to recalculate everything and two years to prepare for. A city killer might be enough, but sometimes we only get hours. Sometimes city killers aren't found until they find fly by. In fact, this happened last year. I thought I had a pretty good handle on my finances until Rocket Money uncovered a subscription I'd been paying for twice with just a few taps. They helped me cancel it and save that money for something better. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. What I also love is their dashboard. It lays out your entire financial picture in one place. You can see bills, paydays, even set up custom budgets so you always know where you stand. Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, with members saving up to $740 a year when they use all the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com the Y Files today. That's RocketMoney.com the Y Files. RocketMoney.com the Y Files the President hasn't been seen in five days. His last public appearance was the announcement.

[President]

We have 90 days to solve this problem. America's best minds are working on it.

[Narrator]

Then he vanished. Official word secured at an undisclosed location. Everyone knew that meant Cheyenne Mountain. Anyone who had the means to escape didn't waste any time.

[President]

Once the risk hit X, they were gone. Politicians, celebrities, people you've watched your whole life. Evacuated while the highways jammed.

[Billy]

What we saw was an orderly panic among the ultra wealthy. Beverly Hills emptied almost overnight.

[President]

It was Beverly Hills first, no surprise there. Gulf streams and Learjets lined up like limos taking off every night.

[Billy]

The 405 is a graveyard of abandoned vehicles. Families walked for days into the Mojave.

[Narrator]

The poor headed to tent cities in Nevada desert camps with no water, no power, no plan, just distance from the coast.

[Billy]

Fuel ran out, roads clogged. Now tent cities rise like new towns, only no one planned them.

[President]

Three million people have fled Los Angeles in just 14 days.

[Narrator]

Three million people gone in two weeks. Gas hit $47 a gallon. Then the stations just closed. The tanker drivers stopped showing up. Why deliver fuel for worthless paper?

[Billy]

Markets remain volatile. As the Apophis timeline advances. Commodities like iodine tablets, fuel and food stocks have surged in value.

[Narrator]

The new currency is water, ammunition and insulin. A vial of insulin costs 3 gallons of water. If you can find it. We all got to watch Apophis grow larger in the sky. A red star visible during daylight, getting bigger every day. Suicide hotlines stopped answering. Too many calls. Not enough volunteers. The volunteers had their own lives to worry about.

[President]

Apophis, prepare for the light.

[Narrator]

Religious movements started sprouting up as the.

[President]

World edges closer to impact. Religious fervor has surged.

[Billy]

The Church of the Final Days and the Apophis witnesses have emerged, offering hope and salvation for those who believe apartheids.

[Narrator]

Guide us to the light. When official authorities dissolved, the local population took control.

[Billy]

The Los Angeles Police Department dissolved last week. Over half the force simply didn't show up. The chain of command collapsed overnight.

[President]

The 405 belongs to the Crips now. Their blue flags for fly over improvised roadblocks. They're not attacking rival crews. They're screening vehicles and controlling movement. Crips and Serenos are distributing food, rationing, medicine, even setting curfews. Ma', am, it's not safe to be out.

[Narrator]

If you need anything, check with me.

[Billy]

What used to be gang turf in Los Angeles has now hardened into checkpoint states. Neighborhoods that once feared violence are now relying on it for structure.

[President]

Call them gangs, call them militias. But Right now, they're the only thing resisted resembling law and order in the city of Los Angeles.

[Narrator]

Society didn't collapse. It reorganized itself. The powerful fled. The poor waited. And Apophis kept coming. While some astronomers celebrated, another rock caused global panic. In late 2024, asteroid 2024 yr 4 became the most dangerous object in modern history. A building sized rock. Its impact probability kept climbing 1.5%. Then 2.8%, then over 3%. That threat prompted China to establish its first ever planetary defense unit. They're recruiting astrophysicists under age 35. Their 2030 mission will try to deflect asteroid 2015 XF261 using a dual spacecraft approach. One to impact another to evaluate the results. International cooperation is growing. Because the truth is, we have no idea what's coming. NASA estimates there are 25,000 city killers crossing our orbit. And they've only found half. 13,500 are still out there somewhere. Completely hidden. Somewhere completely hidden, huh? You mean like the moon landing tapes? This detection gap creates nightmare scenarios. In 2019, asteroid 2019 OK was found. It's 400ft wide. It was spotted less than 24 hours. Its closest approach. It missed Earth by only 40,000 miles. A direct hit would have released 30 megatons of energy. That's 300, 100 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb. All with less than a day's warning. The problem is the sun. Our telescopes have to look away from the sun. Objects approaching from that direction remain invisible until they hit us. Like in 2013. The meteor that hit Chelyabinx. NASA's NEO Surveyor telescope is set to launch in 2027. It will finally close this blind spot. It'll use infrared and should find 90% of the remaining city killers within 10 to 20 years. But until then, we're defenseless against an attack from the direction of the sun. To understand how devastating that kind of surprise can be, you don't even have to look up. You can look down. Because buried in a layer of sediment around the world is evidence of an impact that reset civilization. The last Chinook lifted off from UCLA Medical center at 6am Doctors stood on the helipad watching it disappear. They had patients on ventilators, premature babies in incubators. They were not leaving.

[Billy]

LAX has gone silent. No departures, no arrivals. Just grounded planes and flickering monitors. The terminals are empty now.

[President]

The last jet out of LAX lifted off at 2:17pm United to Denver. It was half full. Those who could afford to leave already had.

[Narrator]

Those who remained made their choice. The elderly Couple in Brentwood who'd lived there 50 years. They sat on their porch holding hands. They weren't leaving either.

[Billy]

For those still in Los Angeles, officials have confirmed that all remaining power will be shut off today at exactly noon.

[President]

The blackout is deliberate to reduce fire risk after the strike.

[Billy]

Please take this time to shelter and remain off the streets.

[Narrator]

The power grid shut down at noon. Controlled shutdown to prevent fires after impact. The emergency alert system broadcasts its final message.

[President]

Seek shelter. Stay away from windows. God bless America.

[Narrator]

Then Static Maggie Powers, an ICU nurse, writes her patients names on their foreheads with a Sharpie. She figures when the building collapses, someone should know who they are. She has 14 patients on ventilators. The backup generators have 30 hours of fuel. That means her patients only have 30 hours of life. Animals flee inland. Coyotes run through downtown. Birds fly east in massive flocks. Dogs howl constantly. Every animal except humans understands what what the receding ocean means.

[Billy]

Scientists warn this is not a tide. It's a gravitational response. Something massive is pulling on the ocean.

[President]

The Pacific has pulled back over 20ft since yesterday, like it's holding its breath. Entire reefs are exposed.

[Billy]

Seismographs are now detecting microquakes, gravitational pulses every 90 seconds. They're weak but rhythmic.

[President]

Every 90 seconds, the earth flinches. Experts say it's the gravity of what's coming, literally. And the ocean is trying to warn us.

[Narrator]

The last text messages go out before the cell tower shut down. I love you is sent 847,000 times in Los Angeles County. Most messages are never delivered. Apophis filled three degrees of sky. You could see it tumbling end over end. A mountain in space. The last thing 50 million people people would ever see. 12,800 years ago, Earth was emerging from the last ice age. Temperatures were warming. Massive ice sheets were melting. Then suddenly, everything reversed. A comet about 62 miles wide earned broke apart and bombarded the planet. The evidence is found in a thin layer of rock found across four continents. The Younger Dryas boundary layer. Also referred to as the black Mat. The black Mat contains evidence called impact proxies. Iridium, shocked quartz, nanodiamonds, microscopic spherules of melted rock at over 40 sites. The concentrations of impact proxies are millions of times of above normal levels. All date back to exactly 12,800 years ago. A series of objects hit the North American ice sheet, causing mass flooding. Continents sank beneath the sea. The impacts triggered global wildfires. Then came the freeze. Ooh, a song of ice and fire. Yes. The freeze lasted 1200 years. That's how long it's going to take George Martin to finish the books. The devastation was total. Mammoths, mastodons, saber toothed cats, American horses, all gone. 75% of North American megafauna went extinct. Two thirds of the human population disappeared. The first widespread human culture in North America vanished from the archaeological record. This wasn't climate change. This wasn't over hunting. This was a civilization reset. And comets are different from asteroids and far more dangerous. Asteroids follow predictable paths. Comets arrive from the outer solar system. They have long elliptical orbits so they can show up with little warning and sometimes as little as six months. As I write this, Comet 3I Atlas is headed our way. It was spotted a few weeks ago. It'll make its closest approach to Earth in December. That's fast. So fast, there is not a thing we can do but watch and wait. Asteroids hit Earth at 19 miles per second. Comets come in at 45. A comet delivers more than nine times the destructive power than an asteroid of the same size. The most dangerous comet we know is Swift Tuttle, 16 miles wide. A land impact would release energy 27 times greater than the Chicxulub dinosaur killer. One astronomer called it the single most dangerous object known to humanity. Now, despite what mainstream scientists say, asteroids hit Earth all the time. But what about comets? How often do they hit us? Every hundred million years? Every 10 million years? One million years? Nope. Comets of all sizes hit the Earth on average every three days. The flash came first. The sky turns white. Not bright white. Everything within 100 miles ignites simultaneously. The thermal pulse travels at light speed. By the time your brain understood the flash, your body was already vapor. That's mercy. Instantaneous conversion from matter to energy. The blast wave expanded at Mach 2. A wall of superheated air traveling 800 miles per hour. It flattened everything from San Diego to Bakersfield.

[Billy]

The fireball climbed 60 miles into the atmosphere, so high it pierced the mesosphere. It was visible from space.

[President]

From Phoenix to Vegas. People saw it light up the sky. It didn't look like fire. It looked like a second sun. Then the horizon vanished.

[Narrator]

Oh, my God.

[President]

Is that.

[Narrator]

Los Angeles?

[President]

The temperature of the plume exceeded 10,000 degrees Celsius. What erupted wasn't smoke. It was Earth itself, turned to gas. Seven states were hit by ejecta. It wasn't just ash. It was fragments of Earth's crust, fused and glowing. Some of it traveled faster than sound.

[Billy]

Chunks of vaporized ocean rose miles into the sky, then hardened midair before slamming down across the southwest. Reports of burning fragments came in from as far as Colorado, it rained fire.

[Narrator]

The earthquake was a 10.5 on the Richter scale. The ground rippled like water. Then silence. People were too frightened to notice. The Pacific Ocean was moving. Every year our planet flies through invisible minefields left by disintegrating comets. We call them meteor showers. We give them pretty names. The Perseids, the Leonids, the Geminids. But these aren't harmless light shows. We're flying through the shattered remains of giant comets at 67 miles per hour. And some of those fragments are massive. Remember Swift Tuttle, the most dangerous object known to humanity. The Perseid meteor shower is caused by the Earth flying through trillions of pieces of debris from Swift Tuttle. Trillions. And we're not just crossing one minefield, we're crossing a dozen. The Leonids can produce storms of hundreds of thousands of meteors per hour. The Lyrids come from a comet two and a half miles wide. There are 12 or 13 meteor storms every year, sometimes more. It takes the Earth several days to pass through the torrid meteor stream. It's so big. The torrid meteor stream is full of filaments of debris. Some of those filaments are very small debris. Some of them are much larger debris and much more dangerous. We pass through it twice a year. I've likened it in the past to strapping on a blindfold and crossing an eight lane highway and just hoping that you don't get hit by a truck. The meteor shower that's most relevant to us is the Torrids. The debris field is almost 20 million miles wide. We cross it every year. It has trillions of objects that range from the size of grains of sand to the size of cities. How many big objects? Nobody knows. It could be 10, it could be 100. The government doesn't like to talk about it.

[President]

The government knew that they couldn't do anything about it.

[Narrator]

And they were starting to get worried calls from their constituents.

[President]

What can we do about these things? You got to do something about it.

[Narrator]

You got to stop it.

[President]

And they couldn't.

[Narrator]

So what they decided to do was.

[President]

To just pretend that it wasn't real.

[Narrator]

They had the public fears about the impacts.

[President]

They decided to just deny, deny, deny. Just say, don't worry, there's no problem, We've got it under control.

[Narrator]

When they didn't, the tunguska event in 1908 happened during the peak of the Taurids. A fragment just 200ft wide exploded over Siberia, flattening 80 million trees. If that happened over New York, Paris or London, those cities would be Gone. But we don't really need to be hit by a giant object to cause planetary chaos. We don't have to be hit at all. Every year about 50 objects pass closer to the earth than our satellites. Losing our satellites would cripple the global economy. Phone service, the Internet, the banking system, all gone. That's terrifying. But in 2022, for the first time in history, humanity f the Pacific Ocean recoils from the impact. Eight minutes ago, Apophis punched a 12 mile hole in the sea floor. The water rushed in, hit molten rock, exploded into steam. Now it's coming back.

[President]

What was once shoreline is now seabed. Fish carcasses rot beneath a baking sun.

[Narrator]

Downtown has four minutes left.

[Billy]

A tsunami of unimaginable scale, 150 meters high is sweeping through Los Angeles. Entire districts in have been erased in seconds. The whole ocean is coming.

[President]

Imagine a skyscraper made of water moving at 450 miles per hour. That's what hit Los Angeles this afternoon. Entire neighborhoods are gone. We are witnessing the unthinkable. A wall of water over 500ft high has torn through Los Angeles. Moving faster than a commercial jetliner.

[Narrator]

The wall of water doesn't break, it maintains its height.

[President]

What hit LA was no wave. It was a moving cliff of ocean. 150 meters high, traveling faster than fire.

[Billy]

I have to get to the roof.

[Narrator]

It tears through the city at 200 miles per hour dragging cars, homes and people with it.

[President]

Mom.

[Billy]

Initial estimates suggest tens of millions are gone. Entire cities, entire families simply vanished. We don't have exact figures yet, but we know what's missing. The silence from Los Angeles. That silence speaks for millions.

[Narrator]

But more than California is affected.

[Billy]

This is not just California. This is not just the United States. This event is global.

[President]

Catalina island is gone. Not underwater, gone, Erased. The impact event struck with such force it ceased to exist. The Pacific shelf fractured. We are no longer talking about local devastation. This is.