The fall of an asteroid to Earth is a scenario typical of disaster films. However, this is not a science fiction plot with a set of protagonists and a nuclear bomb on a mission to save the planet.
The impact of an asteroid on the life of planets is a fact of science. There are obvious craters on Earth, the Moon, and Mars, which show us a long history of falling large objects hitting the planet.
The most famous asteroid attack on Earth is the one that struck flora and fauna 65 million years ago. This asteroid is believed to have emitted catastrophic amounts of moisture and dust into the atmosphere. These were such gigantic amounts of dirt that they blocked sunlight from reaching the surface.
Poisoning by combustion materials and a drop in temperature on a planetary scale provoked the extinction of dinosaurs. In fact, the eerie event on Earth was caused by the fall of a group of asteroids.
Any asteroid falling from the sky will release a huge amount of energy when it collides with the planet, so trouble on one scale or another is still expected. We have already voiced one example of the consequences - the fall of an asteroid once killed a lot of animals and plants, and powerful dinosaurs, including, although rodents, for example, survived a catastrophe called "the end of the world."
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF ASTEROID FALLS TO EARTH?
By comparison, in 2028, asteroid 1997XF11 - a gloomy kilometer-long celestial rock in diameter - will pass from the center of the Earth at a distance of about 900,000 kilometers. But if something changes in its orbit, then it will crash into the planet's surface at about 48,000 km / h.
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According to experts' calculations, the energy of the explosion will be 1 million megatons per bomb. It is very likely that such an asteroid will destroy most of the life on the planet.
It's hard to imagine a 1 million megaton bomb, so let's look at a slightly smaller yield. Let's say a cottage-sized asteroid crashed into Earth at 48,000 km / h. It would have an amount of energy approximately equal to the bomb dropped by the Americans on Hiroshima - 20 kilotons.
An asteroid like this would demolish reinforced concrete buildings up to half a kilometer in diameter, scattering wooden structures up to 1.5-2 km. Even such a "small" relatively stone will cause significant damage.
If the collapsed asteroid is the size of a 10-storey eight driveway building, it will release an amount of energy equal to serious nuclear bombs - about 25 megatons. Such an asteroid will blow away reinforced concrete buildings up to 10 km in diameter, completely destroying a small city.
What can arrange an asteroid "carrying" 1 million megatons? This asteroid has energy that is 10 million times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He is able to equalize everything at a distance of 200 to 500 kilometers (here you must also take into account the folds of the terrain). In other words, such an asteroid would cause severe damage, perhaps 10,000 to 15,000 kilometers away.
The amount of dust and debris thrown into the atmosphere will block the sun's rays, but even before this terrible event will destroy many living forms of the planet. If a large asteroid falls into the ocean, it will cause huge tidal waves hundreds of meters high, which will completely clear the coastlines like a Flood.
In other words, if an asteroid falls, it will be a really bad day, no matter how big the rock falls from heaven to us.
Many scientists believe that this asteroid impact caused the mass extinction 65 million years ago, and the 1908 Tunguska event serves as a stark reminder of the asteroid threat. Let's hope this never happens and we don't witness an epic nightmare like the dinosaurs.