8 Things That Will Happen If an Asteroid Hits Earth

We’ve all seen the movies about asteroids colliding with our planet, we’ve also read the news about near misses of asteroids flying close to us. Of course, many of us know that it is thought an asteroid hitting earth finished off the dinosaurs, in fact, this impact is thought to have wiped out 80% of all life on our planet, allowing mammals and eventually humans to thrive. But what would actually happen if an asteroid hit us? Check out these 8 facts about an asteroid armageddon event…

The asteroid itself

The dinosaur-killing asteroid itself is probably the most famous of asteroids to hit our planet, so what if a exact twin of this asteroid hit us tomorrow? It is thought that the asteroid was 10km in diameter and created a crater of around 180km wide in the earth’s crust. Of course, it wasn’t just the hole, the energy released by the impact vaporised the asteroid itself instantly and then wiped out most of life on earth. But even this event would not blow our planet into pieces, nor would it instantly kill all life on earth, there would be some survivors both animal and human alike to repopulate the planet.

2. Before the asteroids impact

NASA has given some advice on what do if a large asteroid does crash into us, it simply reads ‘pray’! In reality, we would probably get a few months of warning as the asteroid itself would be very easy to spot. A few months is not a long time at all to dig bunkers or make people safe, or at this point in time, we do not have the technology to deflect or change the asteroid’s course. The time would need to be spent making safe places for as many of us as possible either by going underground or underwater as far from the crash zone as possible!

3. Final Approach

Of course, the whole world would be in a state of panic even though for most of the time the sky would remain as it is now. Only 24 hours or so before impact would we actually see the asteroid in the sky (all be it at night and not very big). Around 3 hours before impact we may feel the full impact of what is about to happen with a bright object in the sky even in twilight (If you see an asteroid in the day it is probably only minutes from impact). As the asteroid gets closer it would remain silent even as it enters the atmosphere at many times the speed of sound.