A meteor the size of the one shown would probably liquify the crust or smash earth to rubble. Look at it. It's the size of a continent. A 10 kilometer meteor or less will do the extinction job just fine.
Im tired of the media showing this picture when discussing meteor strikes
by IronGland 16 Replies latest jw friends
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Big Tex
Dumb Guy Question: Didn't the moon impact the earth, albeit early in its development?
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Phantom Stranger
I like the splash especially... like the gravitational forces wouldn't be shredding everything on both bodies long before impact. There would probably be huge electromagnetic discharges too.
Always liked Lucifer's Hammer, though...almost wiped out mankind with a comet with the consistency of a hot fudge sundae.
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jgnat
Thanks, Big Tex. Your question set me looking. There are very cool pictures at this site.
http://www.psi.edu/projects/moon/moon.html
I did not know the answer to your question until I looked. According to this theory, the moon is the result of the impact (earth matter blown away) not the cause. So whatever might have hit us would have been smaller than the moon, I suppose.
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Phantom Stranger
Sure, the first Google site has the text...but check out the cool computer sim images on the second Google hit, http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/outreach/origin/ :)
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IronGland
The moon was supposedly formed when a mars sized object slammed into the earth during the early days of the solar system, the matter that was ejected coalesed,cooled and formed the moon. Objects of that size and the size of the one shown in the picture are long gone, having either already impacted other planets or formed planets themselves. There are some pretty big rocks in the asteroid belt(in the hundreds of kilometer diameter range) but they do not cross earth orbit. The ones we have to worry about are usually less than a kilometer across, but thats still big enough to wipe out a continent.
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Phantom Stranger
Interesting article from the Russian Academy of Sciences about the Tunguska event.
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IronGland
Yeah, i've read that. Imagine if that happened over a major city.
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jgnat
Ohh. Mah. Gawwwd! Phantom Stranger. The earth was smacked like a blot of silly putty against a brick wall! Ouch.
Ohh. Mah. Gawwwd! I now know what JWD geeks do for Friday Night entertainment!
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Aztec
Jgnat, you're so funny!
IG, WTF is that?
~Az