Did you know that people stand an equal chance of dying on an airplane as they do at the mercy of an asteroid?

A recent study worked out the probability of dying from selected causes, the results suggested that the chances in an aircraft carrier crash and at the mercy of a comet/asteroid impact both equate to about a 1 in 20,000 chance. These were superseded by dying in a flood (1 in 30,000) or a tornado (1 in 60,000). This is one of the founding statistics that 51 degrees is based on, not only to entertain an audience but to bring awareness to a seriously understated natural disaster. It is far from the realms of science fiction. It's not a case of if an asteroid is on a collision course to Earth but in fact when and how are we suppose to stop it.

On March 23, 1989 the 300-meter (1,000-foot) diameter Apollo asteroid missed the Earth by 700,000 kilometers (430,000 mi) passing through the exact position where the Earth was only 6 hours before. If the asteroid had impacted it would have created the largest explosion in recorded history, twelve times more powerful than the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever exploded by man. It attracted widespread attention as early calculations had its passage being as close as 64,000 km (40,000 mi) from the Earth, with large uncertainties that allowed for the possibility of it striking the Earth. That means potentially everyone on the planet could have been 6 hours from death (or in my case 6 hours from ever being born). An asteroid as small as 5 miles across could cause mass extinction's. Its suspected that was the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The near miss of 1989 is not a "one off" occurrence. In this millennium alone there has been 6 close approaches by near Earth objects. On November 8, 2011  2005 YU55 (at about 400m diameter) passed within 324,600 km (201,700 mi) from Earth. This was the closes an asteroid has came to the Earth since records began. 

51 Degrees although created to entertain, touches upon a genuine topic of concern and it is that element of reality which will make this film so engaging.

“There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile. Permanence is but a word of degrees.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson