Based on the standard cosmological model, the age of the universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years, with an uncertainty of only 200 million years.

Today, we know from radiometric dating that Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. This implies that when earth was created, the universe was already almost 10 billion years old.

Galaxies are moving away from each other, indicating the universe is expanding. However an observation known as Hubble's (of telescope fame) Law, states that the expansion of the universe is not slowing down as expected due to gravity; instead, it's accelerating. This acceleration is attributed to dark energy.

The universe isn't expanding in one direction, but rather uniformly in all directions. and not from a central point outwards. Like raisin bread, as the bread bakes, the raisins (galaxies) move away from each other as the space between them expands.

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So many things had to fall into place at the right time in the formation of out planet and the creation of the human species that it is unlikely there is a human life form anywhere else in the universe - we are all alone on our beautiful planet.

There are so many planets like ours that there are sure to be life forms like ours somewhere else in the universe. If they visit us they might not like what they see.

Even though there may be life forms similar to ours in the universe, the distances are so vast we will never interact with them.

If Earth's history were a 24-hour clock, with Earth formed at midnight, the first evidence of life only appeared around 11:30 AM, and humans (intelligent life) just before noon, around 11:59 AM. If our planet was visited by alien life at 11.55AM there would have been no evidence of us. Radio signals and artificial light might give us away but, even at the speed of light, this evidence may never reach other intelligent life.

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Even if our ship were able to travel at 99.99% of the speed of light it would take time to get to that speed and time to slow down. Once at Proxima Centauri b we couldn't just unpack and move in. It could take centuries to get established and we may have to move on from there anyway. If we discover Proxima Centauri b is a dump, we can't send a message back to warn anybody.

When humans appeared on Earth and explored it, it was mainly through nomads moving from place to place over thousands of years. These nomads didn't have a base or a destination. This option is not feasible in space travel despite TV shows suggesting it is.

As society advanced and cities, governments, religion, civil servants and rule of law developed, humans traveled to other areas of the planet and colonized it. Often this meant displacing its original population. These new settlers were often motivated by a crisis of some kind and could neither stay in the old country nor return to it either. It took several generations for those who left to have their progeny become established in "The New World"

Due to the tyranny of time and distance, humans are unlikely to leave for another planet knowing that they will never get to see it. It will take generations on a "space ark" of suitable size and sustainability to support generations of travelers. The motivation to commit to a program of this scale, its cost, the cooperation required, the planning, the technology etc. to get the program off the ground (literally) will require a crisis of human survival scale.

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The asteroid Apophis is the size of a football stadium and has a trajectory that will place it closer to earth than our communication satellites when it passes by in 2029. This means it will be iinfluenced by and its trajectory altered by Earth's gravitational pull.

Current computer models suggest there is a chance that the trajectory of Apophis could be changed to one where it collides with earth on April 13th 2036 (a 1 in 45,000 chance) but more likely it will not happen until 2136.

If and when Apophis hits Earth it would cause widespread destruction up to several hundred of kilometers from its impact site. The energy released would be equal more than 1,000 megatons of TNT, or tens to hundreds of nuclear weapons.

If it becomes clear that Apophis will impact earth in 2136, mistrust of government and mass media may mean there will be a lack of motivation and resolve to take the steps necessary to protect ourselves.

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I would ignore it and enjoy the rest of my life. I would hope that governments could divert the thing and spare society just like they do in the movies or have my great great grandchildren fix it closer to the time.

I would expect my government to put aside current squabbles and cooperate with other governments to protect humanity. I would expect this to happen as soon as reliable predictions are available. In the meantime I and those I associate with will set a good (or at least a better) example of working together.

Government officials often travel to exotic locations to discuss climate change and other issues at huge expense and without much being accomplished. This does however establish a framework of cooperation that could help us come up with a plan to save the planet from Apophis or something on a larger scale.

I can't see governments ever working together to help mitigate something on the Apophis scale so if it hits individual countries will have to deal with the consequences. If something even bigger happens frankly we are doomed.

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Such is the distrust in government, scientists, the media and each other, we will probably ignore any dire warnings until it is too late and rely on hope and prayer for divine intervention when we finally accept our fate.