As our fourth season draws to a close, we’ve got an apocalyptic, 2-part ending lined up. That’s right, we’re talking Armageddon, and we don’t mean the 1998 Bruce Willis blockbuster. And of course, if we’re going to delve into the end of everything, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu are going to need the help of our ever popular archaeology expert and author, Hannah Liu, MEd. As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing, the failed Soviet-era Kosmos 482 lander that was designed to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere but never actually let Earth orbit and finally just came crashing back home on May 10, just a few days after we recorded this episode! Chuck, Allen and Hannah ponder the possibilities of cataclysmic destruction that the more than half-ton object could produce. Then, without missing a beat, Hannah takes us all the way back to Greek mythology and the Titanomachy, the legendary fights between the Gods and the Titans that were possibly inspired by catastrophic volcanic eruptions that laid waste to the ancient Mediterranean. Chuck jumps continents to discuss the Norse apocalypse known as Ragnarök – casually dropping that is inspired the massively popular Baldur’s Gate 3 as he does. Not to be outdone, Hannah brings us all back to the original Armageddon itself: the final battle between good and evil that is foretold in the Book of Revelations to take place at Har Megiddo, the “Hill of Megiddo” in Hebrew. You’ll also hear about where the word apocalypse comes from, and why it’s become associated with the end of the world, as Hannah gives us all a quick lesson in eschatology, or the study of the end of the world. Our first question comes from Ahmed, who asks, “What are the odds that a killer asteroid will kill us all?” Allen gets a little excited about asteroid 2024 YR4, an asteroid the size of a 15-story building, that is predicted to pass safely by Earth in 2032 but at one point had as high a chance of hitting us as 4-5% – and still has about a 3% chance of hitting the Moon. Chuck explains that the odds of a true “dinosaur-killer” extinction event asteroid impact from an object at least a mile across is about 50 million to 1 in any given year. Hannah points out that it’s far more likely that Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that inundated Pompeii, will erupt again. The last one was in 79AD, and since it tends to blow its top every 2,000 years or so, we’re due. Moving back further, Hannah tells us about the Minoan Eruption that devastated the isle of Santorini in the Mediterranean, wiping out the city of Akrotiri, around 1600 BCE and was reported as far away as China. And that’s just a few of the disastrous historic collapses Hannah shares with us, including the Hekla 3 eruption in Iceland that had may have had something to do with the Bronze Age Collapse. It turns out that the apocalypse is too big for a single episode! Join us in two weeks for Part 2 of our journey into all things apocalyptic. We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon . Credits for Images Used in this Episode: The Kosmos 482 lander probe reentered Earth's atmosphere on May 10 at 06:24 UT over the Indian Ocean. Because the Russian probe was designed to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere, it is possible it survived reentry, but has landed in the ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia.– Credit: NASA On March 26, 2025, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured images of asteroid 2024 YR4 that indicate the asteroid is about the size of a 15-story building. – Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andy Rivkin (APL) Santorini island, Greece. Satellite image of Thera. The bay in the center of the island is the caldera created by the Minoan eruption.– Credit: NASA EOS Excavation of Akrotiri in 2018– Credit: Creative Commons: By Rt44 - Own work The Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Great Palace at Knossos, Crete – Credit: Creative Commons / Gleb Simonov Detail of Abraham Ortelius' 1585 map of Iceland showing Hekla in eruption. The Latin text translates as "The Hekla, perpetually condemned to storms and snow, vomits stones under terrible noise". – Credit: Creative Commons / Abraham Ortelius #liuniverse #charlesliu #allenliu #hannahliu #sciencepodcast #astronomypodcast #hannahliu #apocalypse #armageddon #doomsday #kosmos482lander #asteroid2024yr4 #titanomachy #ragnarak #baldursgate3 #bookofrevelations #harmegiddo #eschatology #mountvesuvius #pompeii #minoaneruption #hekla3 #bronzeagecollapse
