I stumbled across this site one day, and was fascinated to encounter at least a few individuals who think outside the box.
There are actually concerted professional and amateur efforts to track stray asteroids and whatnot. Curiously, amateurs have been creating a great deal of notoriety over the past decade. There are now websites that list and track errant asteroids and whatnot. The big excitement lately has been a football stadium sized asteroid that will make a near pass in the 2020's and then possibly impact in the early 2030's. Some studies have been so detailed as to identify where the impact will occur (ref., in the Pacfic Ocean between Hawaii and southern California); however this was upsetting to many and more recent reports give the asteroid a low chance of impact. U.S.Congress has looked into this, and not figured-out what to do, and has postponed further considerations. The near pass-by in the mid-2020's should stimulate interest.
The irony is that there are over 1,000 asteroid in near collision solar orbitals, and this disqualifies Earth as being a planet, according to the criteria applied to disqualifying Pluto. I did some research, and according to the criteria that disqualified Pluto, our solar system now actually only has two legitimate planets. The rest, including Earth, are disqualified.
I find the asteroid belt to be very fascinating. It is still not entirely certain whether this is a debris field or a planetary beltway where planets either did not entirely form or were torn apart by Jupiter? It is a wide-enough zone for at least two planets. At this point it is a cosmic pool table. Collisions cause somethings to be shattered and others to be knocked out of stable orbits and then to be absorbed or sling-shotted asunder by Jupiter. Current astronomical thinking is that the asteroid belt will be entirely cleaned-out and emptied, except for possibly dust rings, within a million years. This suggests that the current asteriod belt as we know it today is probably not that old, which makes one wonder what it was like 500 millions years ago, or a billion years ago or 3 billions years ago.
Regardless of whether one believes in an extraterrestrial space alien deity, or whatever religion, or other spiritual divinity, there are some interesting aspects about the spiritual nature of biological life (including evolution) and humanity, including such phenomena as afterlife, ghosts and manifest destiny. Because of underground facilities, humans could, no doubt, survive a sizeable asteroid impact and even a moderately prolonged global winter. Humanity will definitely become quite durable with the development of a permanent lunar colony, which will no doubt occur within two decades or less. Extensive colonization of Luna and Mars are inevitable. Martian colonization probably will not begin occurring until after mid-century. Luna and Martian colonies will be domed colonies initially with considerable underground development. The problem with Lunar colonies will be the intense sunlight and harmful solar radiation frequencies. With designer greenhouse atmospheres, surface domed areas on Mars can be subtropical or even tropical, although Mars will feel like a late afternoon paradise with only half to less of the midday overhead sunlight intensity as Earth. Lunar colonies will be essentially solar-powered with a major emphasis on biofuels, which means Luna agriculture, which means multilayered dome systems that can chemically and electrically filter or reflect the biologically harmful solar radiation frequencies. Martian colonies will be similar; however my colony designs require a surround of nuclear power plants. Plant life will grow more slowly on Mars. In both realms of colonial adventure, beekeepers and worm ranchers will be essential.
The wildcard in extraterrestrial colonization is water. Luna either has a lot of water or the ingredients to make water, and also has potentials for nuclear reactor technology. Only recently is science becoming certain about the origins of Luna and making this knowledge publicly known. About 4.2/4.3 billions years ago, primordial Earth and a smaller planet, posthumously named Thaea, collided. The collision was somewhat oblique and knocked off a lot of the now Pacific basin area, which produced a vast dust cloud around Earth that ultimately consolidated into Luna, our moon. Once Luna formed, it appeared some 14 times larger than today, because it was much closer. It has been progressively drifting away and may at some point become independent. Primordial Earth and Thaea had essentially consolidated into planets at the time of the collision, and as a result, Luna has little or no nickel-iron inner core. Luna was essentially formed of rocky materials outside the inner cores of the two planets. The collision apparently caused Earth and Thaea to become re-molten and fuse together into modern Earth. Where Thaea came from is an enigma, or possibly primordial Earth and Thaea were the last two planetoidal accretions of the Earth orbital zone?
The other planetary moons were captured by the planets. Most or all are from the Kupier Belt; however one or more might have come from the asteroid belt region? Some astronomers wonder whether Mercury is truly a planet or perhaps a wandering moon that Venus had captured for a while and then lost?
The major nearby source for water is Ceres, which is one of the largest or the largest of the planetoids in the asteroid belt. It is surrounded in thick ice and is believed to harbor more freshwater than currently exists on Earth. I predict an ice mining operation off Ceres in the 22nd Century.
The adventures that lie ahead are awesome and totally exciting. It makes one want to live forever just to find out what happens.