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This Is What Might Happen if an Asteroid Crashed Into Your Town

An online simulator lets you launch an asteroid at a locale of your choosing and ponder the potential outcome.

If an asteroid made of pure gold, with a diameter of 2,600 feet and blasting at 77,000 miles per hour, came in at an angle of 48 degrees and hit New York City’s Upper East Side, aka around where I live, I unfortunately now know what would happen.

Myself and 6,363,353 people would be vaporized within the space rock’s resulting crater, a massive chasm over half a mile deep. The shard would release more energy than the last volcanic eruption of Yellowstone, a colossal disaster that, thousands of years ago, spewed ash, magma and debris far enough to cover most of the continental United States.

Or at least that’s what I learned from an asteroid simulation website this afternoon while sipping on a cup of coffee.

The Asteroid Launcher is a free, data-driven concept created by Neal Agarwal, a developer widely known by his online persona: neal.fun. Agarwal’s goal is basically to blend immense arrays of data and interesting mental dilemmas to form clever, interactive online thought experiments, like this one that tells you what kind of devastation would follow an asteroid smashing into your town.

«The main inspiration,» Agarwal told me over email, «was definitely growing up watching movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon! I’ve always wanted to have an online tool that would let me test out different impact scenarios and see the effects.»

But of course, the key here with Asteroid Launcher lies in Agarwal’s pseudonym.

There are thankfully no known significant impact threats for the next hundred years or more, according to NASA — and, worst case, the agency is well on its way toward generating a sort of asteroid defense system with the resounding success of its DART mission, which took place earlier this year.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to cater to our intrusive thoughts once in a while. Just for fun.

Peruse Agarwal’s projects and you’ll find an awesome array of rabbit holes to get lost in.

The Size of Space progressively presents you with larger and larger objects, starting with an astronaut and making its way through stars so enormous they make our sun look like a feeble yellow pom-pom. Spend Bill Gates’ Money offers you $100 billion to spend on items ranging from a 12 pack of Coca-Cola all the way to a literal Boeing 747 commercial airplane. It shows you how much money multibillionaires are working with day to day.

And my personal favorite, Absurd Trolley Problems takes you on an illustrative, ethical journey based on English philosopher Philippa Foot’s fictional scenario where an onlooker has the choice to save five people in danger of being hit by a trolley — except the only way to save them is by killing one person in their stead. The hard part about this isn’t so much the decisions, but the fact that you should, hypothetically, remain consistent in every one of those decisions.

«I’ve kept a big ideas list since I was 16, and have recently passed 1,000 project ideas written down (most of them terrible),» Agarwal said. «The ideas can come from everywhere, from books and movies to a conversation with a friend. I think the important thing is writing them down and being as open as possible to new and weird ideas. Sometimes two to three bad ideas can combine and form a great project.»

Which brings us to Agarwal’s latest endeavor: Asteroid Launcher.

You begin by designing your own asteroid, entering a material, rock diameter, speed and impact angle. Then, you can select any location on a realistic map to the left of the screen. All that remains, at that point, is to click a giant button that says LAUNCH ASTEROID.

Boom.

You arrive at a page that tells you, theoretically, what you’ve just done to your location of choice.

These results are surprisingly detailed, as Agarwal embedded his code with asteroid information gleaned from academic science publications, such as a doctoral thesis about asteroid impact risk and a peer-reviewed population vulnerability model authored by experts from NASA, Lancaster University and the University of Southampton.

However, it does appear that some question the results of Asteroid Launcher — one scientist, for instance, tweeted his preference for the more old-school Earth Impact Effects Program to satisfy doomsday cravings.

Though, to that end, Agarwal says the Earth Impact Effects Program uses the same equations as Asteroid Launcher because both are based on a research paper written by Gareth Collins, an asteroid impact expert at Imperial College London. «They’ll give pretty much the same results,» he explained, noting that Clemens Rumpf, an asteroid risk expert who formerly worked at NASA, also contributed to his project.

«The goal of neal.fun is to bring back the weird and fun internet!» Agarwal said. «I grew up at a time when the internet was full of strange and fun flash games and experiments, and watched that all slowly go away as social media took over. Now the web is finally becoming powerful enough again to create fun digital experiences, and I’m excited to keep exploring the potential with new projects.»

On Asteroid Launcher, once you’ve pressed the big red button, scroll down a little, and you’ll catch far more than fatalities spurred by your asteroid design.

Agarwal tells you how many gigatons of TNT your explosion equaled, how many people would receive second-degree burns if your asteroid was closer to a huge fireball, the radius within which peoples’ eardrums would rupture from the shock wave and within which homes would be completely leveled from wind speeds upon impact.

It’s darkly obsessive to check out as many asteroid designs as you can. Immediately after making my dream gold impactor, I plugged in the stats of the asteroid that NASA’s DART spacecraft punched into in an attempt to change the relatively small space rock’s orbit around a larger hunk of space rock.

I couldn’t get things to be completely accurate, because this is so theoretical, but here’s what I came up with.

Dimorphos is considered to be made of «rubble,» aka a bunch of materials, so for material, I went with generic stone. It’s actually about 525 feet in diameter, but Asteroid Launcher requires some rounding. I put in 500 feet. As for speed at time of impact, a parameter we don’t know, I popped in the speed at which the DART spacecraft hit the rock, because, well, why not? That came out to something like 14,400 miles per hour, which had to be rounded as well. I set the location to London and angle to 90 degrees for no reason whatsoever.

Here’s what we got for results — they’re much less shocking than my first ridiculous, gleaming monster asteroid.

My next plan was to input the parameters of the dinosaur-killer asteroid, Chicxulub. But get this: It was so gigantic it didn’t even fit in the diameter section.

«Asteroid impact science is still an evolving field and not everything is known yet,» Agarwal said. «Generally the larger the asteroid, the more uncertain we are about the effects.»

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Technologies

My Teen Loves Her AirPods Pro 2. You Can Save $50 on a Pair of Your Own Right Now

Apple’s impressive AirPods Pro 2 earbuds are still under $200 even though Prime Day is over.

My 13-year-old daughter loves her music and her privacy, and for years she has wanted a pair of AirPods. I always considered them too expensive and she’s been using cheaper options, like the Amazon Echo Buds, as a result. But after one too many pairs being mysteriously «lost,» I figure there’s never been a better time to upgrade her to a pair of AirPods Pro 2.

I picked them up during last year’s sales, and they were definitely well-received. She’s happy, she uses them every day and she hasn’t lost them yet. They are currently $199 at Amazon — a nice $50 discount on the usual price. While that’s more than the low $149 we saw during Prime Day, it’s still a solid price for a high-quality pair like these. We can’t promise that this price will last for long, unfortunately, which means you should probably think about placing your order soon.

Read more: Best Prime Day Apple Deals Still Remaining

HEADPHONE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why I didn’t wait for the AirPods Pro 3

Rumors abound that Apple will replace the Pro 2 with an updated Pro 3 version later this year. My kid wanted headphones sooner, so I got her the Pro 2s. But if you’re on the fence, here’s my perspective.

The main improvements to the Pro 3 are said to be heart-rate monitoring like the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 have, as well as a new design. Other speculation points to improved sound and processing with Apple’s H3 chip, temperature sensors, built-in infrared cameras, a touchscreen on the case, live translation of languages and more. There’s no way to know what they actually will have, but I do know that they’ll be more expensive than the Pro 2 (especially at this sale price). I don’t think those new features are going to be worth the money, however.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

You might have a different take, especially if you want heart-rate monitoring on your headphones for fitness sessions or one of those rumored extras. In that case it might be worth waiting to see what the new versions include. The AirPods Pro 3 are expected to be announced in September and on sale soon after.

Why I didn’t get the AirPods 4 instead

Why did I choose AirPods Pro 2 instead of the newer AirPods 4 with ANC? First off, as I mentioned in another article about a different pair of earbuds I bought, I think sealed, in-ear buds are better than open-design models like the AirPods 4. The seal creates another layer of noise isolation and contributes to superior sound quality, and if you want to pay attention to the world you can always engage ambient sound mode, which Apple calls transparency mode. 

Also a factor was the commentary of CNET reviewer David Carnoy, who considers the Pro 2 the best Apple noise-canceling wireless earbuds: «While we’re quite impressed with those new models — and with the AirPods 4 ANC in particular — the AirPods Pro 2 remain arguably the best Apple AirPods you can buy if you don’t mind having silicone ear tips jammed in your ears.»

My daughter uses earplugs all the time to help her sleep, so she definitely qualifies as somebody who’s comfortable stuffing things in her ears. Like her fingers, when I start using words like «sigma,» «skibidi» and «relatable» to try to relate to her.

I asked Carnoy about the Pro 2s potentially not fitting in her kid-size ears and he reassured me that the range of eartips that come with the Pro 2s «now include XS, so they should fit.» 

Should you buy now with the threat of tariffs?

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are leading to higher prices for a lot of things, including electronics. We’re actually tracking the price of the AirPods Pro 2 in our tariff tracker and as of press time the price has actually decreased since January. 

If you’re in the market for AirPods 2 now anyway, now is a good time to buy. A Reuters report from April said AirPods could be subject to a 39% price hike to cover tariff costs, but the tariff situation is fluid, so I wouldn’t use that potential increase as a reason to buy now. If you wait until the new model comes out later this year, the price on the older AirPods Pro 2 might even get lower.

Do AirPods make a great gift?

It took me years to finally understand, but yes, for someone looking for wireless earbuds, AirPods — especially the Apple AirPods Pro 2 — make the perfect gift, regardless of whether you’re a teenage girl or not. 

If you’re looking for more gifting options, check out our roundup of the best tech gifts under $100.

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Score $420 in Savings on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Before It Hits Shelves

Preorder this cutting-edge foldable phone from Amazon to get double the storage, as well as a $300 gift card, for free.

Why choose between a phone and a tablet when you can get the best of both worlds? With their large interior display, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices have been some of our absolute favorite foldable phones for several generations. If you’re looking to make the switch to one of these sleek hybrid phones, now’s a great time to do so with the cutting-edge Z Fold 7 set to hit shelves later this month. And you can score some serious savings if you preorder yours through Amazon.

The online retailer is offering a free storage upgrade, which saves you $120 on the 512GB model and drops it down to $2,000 (the same price as the basic 256GB model). Plus, your preorder comes with a free $300 Amazon gift card, which bumps the total savings up to a substantial $420. There’s no set expiration for these offers, but with the phone releasing soon on July 25, we definitely wouldn’t wait too long.

Samsung’s unique foldable phones had a bit of an awkward adolescence, but after getting her hands on the new lineup, CNET reviewer Abrar Al-Heet confirms that the latest Z Fold 7 «just feels right.» For one, it’s incredibly sleek at just 8.9mm thick when closed or 4.2mm thick when open, which is so thin you may even forget that it’s a foldable.

Despite weighing in at just 215 grams, this new foldable features some serious hardware. It’s got a 6.5-inch cover screen and an 8-inch interior display with a fluid 120Hz refresh rate. It’s equipped with a cutting-edge Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and 12GB of RAM to support tons of helpful AI features and functions, and comes with Android 16 and Samsung One UI 8 right out of the box. The camera system is also pretty impressive, boasting a 200MP rear camera, 12MP ultrawide shooting and a 10MP front camera on both the cover and interior screens. Plus, it’s equipped with a 4,400-mAh battery for all-day use.

MOBILE DEALS OF THE WEEK

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

With an unbelievably sleek design and some cutting-edge hardware, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 promises to be one of the most advanced phones on the market when it releases on July 25. Unfortunately, it also comes with a staggering $2,000 price tag. If you’re hoping to get your hands on one, this free storage upgrade and $300 Amazon gift card offer is a way to rack up some serious savings and help cushion the blow of its considerable cost.

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Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for July 14, #1486

Here are hints and the answer for today’s tough Wordle for July 14, No. 1,486.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a pretty tough one. But if you guess the right vowels early, you’ve got a shot. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has one repeated letter.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There are two vowels in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: Starting off

Today’s Wordle answer begins with a vowel.

Wordle hint No. 4: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with U.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to canceling or reversing something.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is UNDID.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, July 13, No. 1485 was GNOME.

Recent Wordle answers

July 9, No. 1481: NOVEL

July 10, No. 1482: JUMPY

July 11, No. 1483: BRAND

July 12, No. 1484: EXILE

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Don’t be afraid to use our tip sheet ranking all the letters in the alphabet by frequency of uses. In short, you want starter words that lean heavy on E, A and R, and don’t contain Z, J and Q. 

Some solid starter words to try:

ADIEU

TRAIN

CLOSE

STARE

NOISE

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