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These extremely rare things are more likely to happen to you than winning the Powerball jackpot

A lightning bolt illuminates the sky near Fenway Park in 2014. You are many times more likely to be hit by lightning — or killed by a shark or hit by an asteroid — than win the Powerball jackpot. Jim Rogash/Getty Images

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are a staggering 1 in 292 million.

That’s about the same as flipping a coin and getting the same result (heads or tails) 28 times in a row, according to the Associated Press.

Here’s of list of things that probably won’t happen to you, but are still more likely than winning Powerball’s grand prize:

■  The odds of dating a supermodel are about 1 in 88,000, according to Gregory Baer, author of “Life: The Odds.”

■  The odds that the person you’re dating is a millionaire, 1 in 216, Baer wrote in the book.

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■  The chances you’ll achieve sainthood, 1 in 20 million, according to Baer.

■  The likelihood of having conjoined twins is about 1 in 200,000, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

■  The odds of being struck by lighting in your lifetime — provided you live for about 80 years — are 1 in 12,000, according to the National Weather Service.

■  The odds of an amateur golfer hitting a hole in one on a par 3 hole are 1 in 12,500, according to the National Hole in One Association, which has tracked data through the hole-in-one insurance and prize insurance plans it offers.

■  The odds of two amateurs in the same foursome sinking a hole in one on the same par 3 hole are 1 in 26 million, according to the association.

■  The odds of being dealt a royal flush in poker are 1 in 649,740, according to a mathematician at Central Washington University.

You’re also more likely to suffer some sort of unusual death. There’s quite a long list of strange ways to perish that are more likely than winning the Powerball jackpot. Here are a few:

■  The odds of being killed by an asteroid impact? 1 in 74,817,414, according to The Economist magazine.

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■  The likelihood of being killed in a shark attack is 1 in 8 million, according to a researcher at Tulane University.

■  Death via legal execution? 1 in 127,717, according to the National Safety Council.

Thankfully, you’re more likely to win the Powerball jackpot than to be hit by a piece of satellite debris that falls from space. The odds of such an unfortunate event are about 1 in 21 trillion, according to NASA.


Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrochele