after passing the earth by 50.000 miles, asteroid 2007xa5 swung back into space. it nudged another asteroid 125 later years. this unknown asteroid slowly moved into the solar system picking up speed. it was missed by astronomers on earth and by the time it swung around the sun at about 2 million miles it was moving at 225,000 miles an hour. it rushed past at mercurys orbit, then past venus orbit. both were to far away to be in danger. then onto earths orbit where it passed a little less than 1/4 million miles from the planet. however its satellite..... by the time it was approaching the inhabitants threw everything at it but it just came on coming. they should have started a defensive program 100 years earlier but they kept on with their petty squabbles. approaching at 175,000 miles an hour, no armagedon movie script was going to stop it now. the sudden stop at the earths satellite released so much energy it could have powered the earths civilizations for 100 years. the moon taking the potshots for the earth for the past 3.5 billion years had had enough. it shattered and broke with pieces being thrown in all directions. they fired remaining missles but all they did was make more pieces.it rained down on the planet. they plunged into the oceans, vaporizing millions of gallons of water. they slammed into the continents activing volcanos and earth quakes everywhere. dust over the next 500 years floated down on the planet.the storms, the fireballs, the dirty rain made life almost unlivable on the surface for about 1000 years. plants and animals struggled. a few hearty souls survive above but most dug in to the ground like the small rodents during the end of the dinosaurs. when they ventured up to the surface it was a vastly different earth. the moon and its pieces had somewhat stabilied at about 75,000 miles which meant it orbited the earth in about 10 days. it was also speeding up the earths rotation so the day was about 26 hours. occasionly debris would collide sending another piece of debris down to create another crater. every volcano on the earth was very cranky and eruptions were very frequent. a nice dust ring encircled the earth cutting heat from the sun by 2%. this is world that this inhabitant inherited in 3250 AD. (as a kid i was fasinated by andre nortons daybreak 2250 (hot looking guy on the cover) and lucifers hammer. also the when worlds collide movie and after worlds collide book.)