When asteroids fell to earth. The consequences of large asteroids falling to earth will be even more serious than thought

Translated from Greek, “comet” means “long-haired”, since the star with long tail was associated among ancient people with hair blowing in the wind.

Comets are dirty ice

A comet's tail is formed only when close proximity with the Sun. Far from this celestial body, comets appear as icy, dark objects.

Yeomans: Ceres is about 975 km in its largest dimension, and it was formed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter gravitationally, attracting smaller nearby asteroids about 6 billion years ago. Fifteen minutes later, a second image is taken from the same area of ​​the sky, and after another 15 minutes, a third image is taken from the same area. The three images are then checked to see if any object has moved in the telescope's image field relative to the background stars.

Any object that is found to be moving from one image to another is a candidate asteroid, and the faster the object's apparent movement between images, the closer the object is to Earth. Q: How do you measure distances and trajectory and size?


90% of a comet is ice, dirt and dust. In the center is a stone core. As it approaches the Sun, the ice melts, forming a dust cloud behind it. This is the tail we see.

Incredible amount

The smallest comets reach a core diameter of 16 km. The largest recorded is 40 km. The length of the tails can be very long. For example, comet Hyakutake's tail length was 580 million km.

Once a group of these angular positions is available, we can calculate the asteroid's orbit around the Sun and determine its predicted position and distance at any given time. This last process is called calculating the ephemeris for the object. Since the asteroid's ephemeris will provide its distance from the Sun and Earth, the size of the asteroid can be estimated from its measured apparent brightness and assuming a reasonable value for its reflectivity.

Every time you see a shooting star or meteor, you are witnessing a tiny part of a comet or asteroid hitting the Earth's atmosphere. Question: Is it true that in the southern hemisphere scientists do not look for asteroids and comets due to the lack of telescopes available to search for them? If true, this prospect is quite scary!


A cluster of comets can number in the trillions. This is exactly what is found in the Oort Cloud, a cluster surrounding the Solar System. Within the solar system, astrologers count at least 4,000 comets.

Jupiter, as the most big planet Solar system, is capable of changing the direction of comets by the force of its gravity. So, one day comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into the atmosphere of Jupiter.

The underrepresentation of search telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere is not as serious as it seems at first glance, since eventually almost all objects close to Earth will be observed from northern hemisphere. Asteroids are small, rocky bodies of the solar system that fill interplanetary space up to the orbit of Jupiter. There are millions of them, and they are often grouped by their composition. The planetary science community refers to them as minor planets, a general term applied to solar system bodies, less so.

Asteroids are mostly made from materials left over from the formation of inner solar systems. Most of them orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, although there are groups of them that approach orbit. Asteroids come in three composition classes. C-types are made of clayey and silicate rocks. M-types are metallic nickel-iron.

Shapeless asteroids

Cosmic bodies form a spherical shape under the influence of their gravity. Asteroids are too small to form a sphere, so they look like ellipsoids or dumbbells.

Integrity of form is rare for an asteroid. More often it is a pile of compounds, which is held by its own gravity. The accumulations contain coal, stone, iron, and volcanic materials.

These categories indicate how far from the Sun they formed in the early solar system. Asteroids are key to the formation of the rocky planets of our solar system. The objects we see today remain apart from the time when solar system formed 5 billion years ago. Let's find out some Interesting Facts about them.

The result is a beautiful fireball, but the meteoroid usually burns before reaching the ground. Some asteroids are actually deflated comets. The fir trees have disappeared and all that remains is rocky material. Some asteroids have their own moons! Most asteroids orbit the Sun in the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are also called minor planets or planetoids.

  • Asteroids aren't the only things that hit the Earth.
  • Every day, more than 100 tons of material from asteroids and comets falls to Earth.
  • Much of it is destroyed by friction as it passes through our atmosphere.
  • Asteroids are rich in precious metals and other metals, as well as water.
Earth and other planets, formed as objects in the early system, broke into each other and made larger worlds.

The diameter of the largest asteroid, Caecesere, is 950 km.


If an asteroid enters a planet's atmosphere, it is a meteor. If it falls to the ground, then it is a meteorite.

Is there a threat to us?

Asteroids pose a potential threat to the planet, but modern technology can easily prevent this.

The process of impact and impact continues to this day, albeit with smaller objects. Asteroids continue to approach Earth in their orbits. They are called near-Earth objects or potentially hazardous asteroids. Depending on the size of the impactor, damage to our planet can range from very little to catastrophic. A small incoming object will likely disintegrate in our atmosphere. A larger one could deposit very large chunks on surfaces or in the oceans. Several organizations make plans in case something is going to hit and cause damage.

Interesting fact - the Earth can be destroyed with just one meteor with a diameter of 1 km. To imagine how an asteroid falls onto the surface of the planet, you can look here.

The fears that the fall of an asteroid causes, on the one hand, are by no means groundless, on the other, are significantly exaggerated and inflated by the media, eager for sensational “horror stories.” Asteroids, as impressively sized celestial bodies with enormous destructive power, have “visited” our planet more than once or twice in the history of the Earth. At the same time, numerous hysterical forecasts about the next “killer asteroid” approaching the Earth and about to fall on our heads are usually not based on anything and completely ignore the data of scientists.

The chances of something hitting Earth are very low, but also depend on the size and orbit of the object. The most famous asteroids: 1 Ceres, 952 kilometers across, 2 Pallas and 4 Vesta. Ceres is a differentiated asteroid. This means it has a rocky core and an icy outer crust. It may have an internal ocean. Pallas is very irregular in shape and may be what remains of an early protoplanet. Vesta is very bright and most likely remains a rocky protoplanet.

Facts Asteroids What is the asteroid belt? Every day the Earth is bombarded with millions of tons of space material. When an asteroid hits the earth, it introduces great amount energy, resulting in powerful shock waves, tornado-like winds and flames of fire behind it. When it falls, it creates a crater, shaking the ground around the impact and throwing debris into the air.

An asteroid is a frequent visitor to Earth

Currently, astrophysicists do not observe asteroids in the “neighborhoods” of the Universe close to our planet, which would represent real danger. Even the widely publicized asteroid Apophis, which passed 14.5 million kilometers from Earth in 2013, turned out to be not as scary as some had advertised. New calculations show that when it returns in 2029, Apophis will under no circumstances be able to collide with Earth. However, even if the collision of such an asteroid, with a diameter of about 300 meters, had occurred, the destructive consequences of the fall of the asteroid would have been only on a local scale, at a distance of several tens of kilometers. Killer asteroids whose diameter exceeds a kilometer are not visible in the observable expanses of space.

People have shown in the past that tsunamis pose the greatest risk from asteroid impacts, but the events are generally difficult to model. Rumpf and his colleagues developed that the continental shelf helps protect the coast by dissipating waves both on the steep edge and on its soft sea slope.

"What makes tsunamis different is that they really are the most far-reaching effect of all impact effects," Rumpf says. The pressure wave or heat plume may not travel very far and craters form right at the impact site, but tsunamis can travel hundreds of kilometers of ocean to hit coastal communities.

However, this does not mean that the Earth has never collided with asteroids - on this moment About one and a half hundred craters are known that are traces of such collisions. Some of these asteroids were very, very impressive. About 37 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of approximately 5 kilometers fell into the territory of Siberia - evidence of this is the Popigai crater with a circumference of approximately 100 kilometers. 65 million years ago, our planet was visited by the most famous asteroid - an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers fell in the area of ​​the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula (the crater it left has a circumference of 174 kilometers). According to one hypothesis, it was the global “nuclear winter” caused by this event that led to the extinction of dinosaurs, as well as many other animal species of the Cretaceous period.

But an asteroid over or in a city would kill millions. Most of these deaths were also caused by wind, even if the asteroid would have crashed to the ground rather than exploding in mid-air. For an aircraft explosion, about 15 percent of the casualties were due to heat. In direct exposure, the effects of gusty winds and surge temperatures are coupled by pressure waves that can rupture internal organs.

According to the team, only about 3% of the casualties will be caused by actual impact or earthquakes and debris. The group plans to discuss the results with emergency managers to come up with proposals for preparedness. An asteroid can hit anywhere, and most of the planet's surface is uninhabited.

It's better not to collide with an asteroid

Even a relatively small asteroid, several tens of meters in diameter, upon colliding with the Earth will lead to the release of energy equal to the warhead of a powerful atomic bomb. It is clear that if this happens in a densely populated area, it will lead to colossal destruction and numerous casualties. But the main attention of the scientific and pseudo-scientific community is focused on large asteroids, the diameter of which is calculated in kilometers. Most people are interested in what will happen if a really large asteroid comes to us and what size a celestial body should be to put an end to life on Earth.

“The asteroid is most likely to hit the water, and even if it hits land, it is much more likely that it will strike from populated areas" says Rumpf. “These are very rare events, but with potentially high consequences.” Could you turn the city into an asteroid that kills humanity the way Ultron seeks its end? The short answer is probably no, the long answer is below.

In an effort to bring peace to the world, Tony Stark creates an artificial intelligence known as Ultron from alien code stored in the Infinity Stone in Loki's scepter. The plan, of course, backfires, and intelligence decides that The best way saving humanity means ending this. Ultron, waxing philosophical about the demise of the dinosaurs, develops a plan - recreating the event of the extinction of the dinosaurs with his own asteroid.

Here you should immediately calm down. To instantly destroy life, that is, destroy our planet, you need an asteroid with a diameter of over 100 kilometers. Such asteroids have simply not yet been recorded in outer space. Asteroids with a diameter of about 10 kilometers are known to science primarily from historical material. A collision with such objects does not pose a fatal threat to the Earth, but its inhabitants will have a very difficult time. First of all, it is better to be as far as possible from the landing site of such a “heavenly guest”, because a crater with a diameter of at least 100 kilometers will form, in which, by definition, nothing alive will remain. Within a radius of up to one and a half thousand kilometers it will also not be very pleasant - people will ride through this territory powerful earthquakes. If an asteroid hits the ocean, it will lead to a monstrous tsunami , which will not flood the entire land, but for coastal areas will prove disastrous. You will need to go either hundreds of kilometers deep into the mainland or a large island (small islands will not be particularly happy), or be at an altitude of at least 500 meters above sea level.

After stealing a ton of vibrator - a fictional material that contains the Cap's shield - to strengthen the ground beneath the fictional European city of Sokovia, Ultron reveals that his goal is to raise most cities into the atmosphere and bring back disaster. When the city rises, it looks almost like a hemisphere of the Earth.

This hemisphere would be two cubic kilometers of dirt and rock. This is about the same amount as all the food the world produces every year. Mass is only part of the equation. The faster the city goes on strike, the closer it is to the extinction of humanity.

Asteroid and positive consequences

But there are experts who see not only negative consequences in asteroid collisions. According to their assumption, the very existence of life on Earth in all its diversity may be a consequence of the fall of an asteroid in the distant past. There is a version that life itself and its development in the direction that has the current evolutionary results appeared under the influence of a series of impacts of asteroids of various sizes about 500 million years ago. These are the asteroids and the special environmental conditions they created influenced the surge in biological activity and led to the emergence of the earth’s biosystem as such. However, these hypotheses are still purely speculative and have not been confirmed.

I. could simply allow the city to fall from a great height. When an object rises above a massive body, similar to Earth, it acquires potential energy, or rather gravitational potential energy. The result of this potential energy is the theoretical maximum energy with which an object in free fall will hit the Earth. In the film, Ultron is able to accomplish half of his plan by bringing down the city before the Avengers vaporize it.

In more severe conditions, we are talking about the release of a small torpedo of photons. Although a 50 megaton impact is a gigantic amount of energy, it is not an extinction level event. So, if the Avengers didn't stop him, how high would he have to take the city to provide the kind of influence that killed the dinosaurs? However, to create a dinosaur-level extinction event, Sokovica would have to descend from 3 million miles above the surface.

According to archaeological data, no jump in biological activity was recorded about 500 million years ago. In addition, it is difficult to explain exactly how collisions with asteroids, which literally leave scorched earth for hundreds of kilometers around them, could contribute to certain biological surges.

What to do?

The problem is that neither situation is possible. Ask any rocket scientist about the energy it would take to lift four trillion kilograms of a city from Earth, and they'd laugh, even with a vibrator in the room. Another option is to increase Sokovia's speed using thrusters. But still, the city would have to travel 14 kilometers per second upon impact. In short, if Ultron had not gone beyond the orbit of the Moon and gradually split Sokova into Earth, humanity would not have gone anywhere.

You'd think Ultron would have done the math. When the meteorite landed on earth 66 million years ago, it became dark and cold. Many plants and animals have not survived climate change. When the greens arrived, the herbivores didn't last long. In the middle of the tropics the temperature dropped to a crisp. And this is shortly after sunlight on earth has almost disappeared. Most recently, plants that were not starved to a slight deficiency froze. Herbivores died along with them.

There are actually only two options for action in the event of the discovery of a large asteroid, the trajectory of which will most likely lead to a collision with the Earth. The first of them is passive, but at the same time it assumes high accuracy in estimating movement parameters celestial body and its fall on our planet. In this case, scientists determine in advance the landing site of the asteroid and calculate the area that will be in the zone of action of the destructive factors of the fall. After this, a large-scale evacuation of the population, industrial facilities and cultural assets from risk regions to safe areas is carried out.

The meat-eaters stepped on the carrion, but at some point the last tusk was rotten. The most prominent victims of the mass death of up to 66 million on Earth were probably the dinosaurs. All species of the giant snake were extinguished. The crash began as a piece larger than Everest, at just over 20 kilometers per second and therefore tens of times faster than a supersonic plane blasting from space into the Gulf of Mexico. The powerful impact of a 30-kilometer deep hole with a diameter of 100 kilometers exploded onto the ground.

The resulting wave of light extinguished all life in the Caribbean. Even more destructive was the amount of rock that evaporated or exploded as a mixture of rubble and dust. Huge clouds of dust spread across the globe and blocked the sunlight.

The second option is active and much more active - to change the trajectory of the asteroid so that it changes course and flies past the Earth. Here comes the turn of various technical scenarios associated with specific characteristics. In this case, very important indicators are the size and mass of the asteroid itself, as well as the moment of its detection and the time before the expected collision. The scenarios are very different: an explosion in a deep shaft of a nuclear charge drilled in an asteroid, the attachment of a powerful engine or solar sails to the asteroid, a change in the direction of movement of a celestial body under the influence of those flying next to it spacecraft etc.

Alexander Babitsky