Asteroid Impacts facts
While investigating facts about Asteroid Impacts On Earth and Asteroid Impacts In The Past, I found out little known, but curios details like:
In 1953, an amateur astronomer saw and photographed a bright white light on the lunar surface. He believed it was a rare asteroid impact, but professional astronomers dismissed and disputed "Stuart's Event" for 50 years. In 2003, NASA looked for and found the crater.
how could asteroid impacts cause mass extinction?
Jupiter is a "cosmic vacuum cleaner." Its gravitational influence causes comets and asteroids to collide with it. The rate of impacts on Jupiter is about 2000-8000X higher than the rate on Earth. Without Jupiter, the probability of asteroid impacts with the inner planets would be much greater.
What is the recurrence interval for asteroid impacts?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are asteroid impacts. Here are 50 of the best facts about Asteroid Impacts On Earth Map and Asteroid Impacts In History I managed to collect.
what causes asteroid impacts?
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The asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs was powerful enough to send Earth rocks to Mars and even Europa. As a result, if we ever find life on those worlds it may actually have originated on our own planet.
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About Apophis (Egyptian god of death and darkness), an asteroid that will pass earth closer than our own satellites orbit on Friday 13th, 2029. It will touch our atmosphere, and we will be able to see it wiz overhead. There is a debated chance of it impacting Earth when it returns in 2036.
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If the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs arrived just 30 seconds later, it would have landed in deep ocean water which would have absorbed much of the force of the impact. The resulting extinction would have been less severe, many dinosaur species would have survived, and humans would not exist
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About the Tunguska event, an asteroid 'impact' that took place in Siberia in 1908. Early estimates suggested that upwards 15 MT of energy were released, but there were no confirmed fatalities.
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There is a 1 in 71 chance that an asteroid will impact earth in 2073 - 2074
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The dinosaur extinction event is marked by a thin layer of sediment all over the world, which contains 160 times as much Iridium as normal - evidence of the global devastation caused by an asteroid impact
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Sudbury, Ontario is located within the second largest known crater on Earth, formed by an impact larger than the asteroid that made the dinosaurs go extinct
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Mercury's surface is covered in craters due to the impact of asteroids and comets. Mercury does not have the ability to heal as many other planets are able to do via geological processes.
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The B612 Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to planetary defense against asteroids and other near-Earth object impacts. It is run by former astronauts and engineers who believe that Earth has a 100% chance of being threatened by a devastating asteroid at some point in the future.
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If an Armageddon/Deep Impact asteroid approaches Earth, scientists are considering using "asteroid-eating robots" to destroy it. The robots are called MADMEN.
What is true about asteroid impacts?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
40% of Ganymede's surface is covered with highly cratered dark regions that are believed to be from heavy impact by comets and asteroids that date back to around 4 billion years ago.
An ancient planet in our solar system had its outer crust blasted away by asteroid impacts. All that remained was a solid metal core which still orbits the sun today. Scientists now propose sending a probe to this "metal world" to learn more about how our own planet formed. - source
The Shiva crater, a proposed asteroid impact site off the west coast of India over 500km across that if confirmed, would be the largest known impact site on earth, and a possible cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs and unusual northward drift of India - source
An impact event occurs when an asteroid collides with a planet. They can be devastating enough to cause extinction events.
You are 5 times more likely to die by an asteroid impact (1 in 1.6 million) than a shark attack (1 in 8 million). - source
When is the next asteroid impact?
In 1995, Edward Teller (father of the H-bomb) proposed that U.S. and Russian weapons designers collaborate on designing a 1000 megaton nuclear explosive device for diverting extinction class asteroids, which would be employed in the event that one were on an impact trajectory with earth.
How do asteroid impacts affect the earth?
The asteroid impact responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs created a megatsunami estimated to have been more than 100 m (330 ft) tall. Had the asteroid struck the deep sea (instead of a relatively shallow sea) the wave would have been 4.6 kilometres (2.9 mi) tall.
The asteroid impact that created Meteor Crater in Arizona hit with up to 20 megatons of energy (Hiroshima was 15 kilotons), which sent out catastrophic winds at roughly 900 mph (1,500 km/h). This debris-hurling shock wave would have killed any human-sized animals within about 4 miles (6 km).
The tallest mountain in our solar system is not on a planet. It is located on a large asteroid named Vesta. This asteroid is home to an impact crater that covers 95% of its diameter, and the 22km high mountain stands in the middle of this crater.
4 Vesta" is a minor planet located in the asteroid belt. It accounts for 9% of the total mass in the asteroid belt and has the tallest mountain in the solar system. Its Rheasilvia impact crater is 19 km (11.8mi) deep with a central peak 23km (14.3 mi) above the surface of the crater.
Asteroid 410777 is the highest impact threat to Earth currently known. And that we didn't see it until 2009.