What Happens If An Asteroid Hit Earth?

There have been many pieces of rocks of all shapes and sizes that exist out there in the void of space floating around. There are also 27,000 of these rocks that have been identified as being close to the earth. Despite the chances of asteroids crashing into the earth being slim, it is definitely not impossible.

Some of you might wonder what will actually happen if one of these asteroids hits earth similar to what has been shown in the movie 'Armageddon and Deep Impact? Here we would like to share with you the possibilities of it happening.

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What is An Asteroid?

First, we must understand what is an asteroid and it seems that this is one of the hot topics regarding outer space. Scientists have pictured asteroids to be rocks that orbit the Sun and are much smaller in size compared to planets.

Most of these asteroids are found in the asteroid belt between the planet Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believed that the dust particles in the Solar System initially collide and form one big lump known as planetesimal.

These lumps can become much bigger by attracting more dust particles into their gravitational field. There are some of them that are big enough to form a planet while the rest remain as asteroids.

The Ceres Asteroid which was discovered in 1801 is the biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter to the extent that it was known as a dwarf planet. The most popular asteroid will be the Chicxulub which was believed to have crashed the Mexican Gulf one time ago causing the extinction of the dinosaur species.

What Happens If Asteroid Hits Earth?

It is pretty obvious for someone to worry about the extinction of the human race in case of an asteroid crash into Earth despite most of them being destroyed before reaching the Earth's atmosphere.

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The damages will all depend on the size of the asteroids themselves. The bigger the size of the asteroid the more catastrophic the damages will be due to the collisions. The impact of the asteroids as it hits Earth will produce a shockwave, extreme heat as well as the formation of a crater.

If it crashes into the ocean it will highly likely cause a tsunami ravaging cities nearby. After the collision, the dust and smoke will rise into the atmosphere and block the light from the Sun to enter. This phenomenon will result in a drop in temperature drastically and many lives on Earth are lost.

The Impact of The Asteroid's Collision

We are quite fortunate enough since there has not been a single asteroid collision in the history of mankind. According to researchers' predictions, if an asteroid the size of a building was to crash into Earth, it will result in the destruction of small cities.

Tunguska Event

If the asteroid was the size of a 20-story building, it can flatten a small country completely. One of the historic moments ever recorded was the Tunguska event. On 30 June 1908, one strong explosion in East Siberia has flatten almost 80 million trees with a coverage area of 2,150 square km(much bigger than the city of London).

However, there was no sign of a crater found since the meteor exploded in the air almost 5km from the surface of the Earth. A meteor is the name of an asteroid or comet that is burning as it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

If the meteor at Tunguska were to crash into Earth, the impact will be much more devastating. The meteor that exploded in the air space of Tunguska was believed to be 40 to 60 meters wide.

Saving Earth From Asteroid's Collision

Aside from studying the Tunguska event, scientists have also conducted research on asteroids in space to get a better understanding of our Solar System. They have studied the amount, physical traits as well as trajectory of the asteroid.

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One of the ways to prevent the threats of these asteroids will be to identify and divert their paths. Many organizations especially NASA are constantly observing the potential of the asteroid ever to hit Earth.

This research was identified as Planet Protection and it has five main steps:

Detecting the asteroid - Using telescopes and infrared imagery to detect any sort of threats.
Observing the asteroid - Researches and estimates the trajectory of asteroids that are seen as a potential threat.
Identifying the asteroid - Identifying the traits of the asteroids such as rotation, shape, speed, and size.
Diverting its path - Several methods have been thought such as performing a collision with the asteroid with spaceships or satellites and shooting laser beams or nuclear weapons to destroy the asteroid.
Training and Coordination - Emergency management in case the collision is unavoidable.

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