Suppose an asteroid strikes the Earth surface, then what could happen? Let us know what happens if a asteroid hits the Earth.
Watch the video to know if a meteor hit earth what would happen –
An asteroid striking our planet – it’s the stuff of science fiction. Many movies and books have portrayed this possibility. There are obvious craters on Earth that show us a long history of large objects hitting the planet. The most famous asteroid ever is the one that hit Earth was 65 million years ago. It’s thought that this asteroid threw so much moisture and dust in to the atmosphere that it cut off sunlight, lowering temperatures worldwide and causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
What if an asteroid hits Earth today?
Chances of an asteroid hitting are pretty small. NASA has tracked 90 percent of the near-Earth asteroids that are at least a half-mile wide and believes none of them has a significant chance of hitting Earth.
Asteroids that pose an existential threat to life on Earth only strike once every 500,000 years or more. Even the 140-meter-wide asteroids that could destroy cities and regions rain down death once every 10,000 years. An asteroid that big traveling at that speed has the energy roughly equal to a 1 million megaton bomb. It’s very likely that an asteroid like this would wipe out most of life on the planet.
If a meteor hit the earth, it will be the wind and shockwave that gets you. If Asteroid collides with our planet, most people in the impact area would die due to wind. It would have an amount of energy roughly equal to the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. An asteroid like this would flatten reinforced concrete buildings up to half a mile from ground zero, and flatten wooden structures perhaps a mile and a half from ground zero.
Why the Wind?
If a large-enough asteroid explodes in the air before hitting the Earth and generating tsunamis, craters, and fire-filled torrents of death, the resulting shockwave could blast winds powerful enough to flatten cities. The pressure from the blast could rupture internal organs.
Talking about the risk of asteroid impact is tricky. We’re not likely to see a huge destructive asteroid in our lifetime. Small asteroid strikes are much more likely. But for one to land near you would be an incredible stroke of bad luck. So, now we know what happens if a asteroid hits the Earth. Can you think what if a meteor hits the earth at the speed of light? Read the article on can airplane breach the atmosphere.
