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  • The earth is constantly being hit by particles of dust, tiny rocks, and other space debris.

  • These small objects usually burn up high in the atmosphere, producing the shooting stars you may have seen while looking up at the night sky.

  • But astronomers are always on the lookout for bigger asteroids, especially the ones that may be on course to strike our planet.

  • While rare, these collisions with rocks from deep space do happen and the results can be downright terrifying.

  • An asteroid just seven meters in diameter will explode with the power roughly equal to the atomic bomb that was used on Hiroshima, leveling buildings up to a mile away.

  • A larger one hundred meter diameter asteroid has more power than the largest nuclear weapon ever tested and could level an entire city!

  • But there are even bigger asteroids out in space.

  • And a run in with one of these would have a truly global impact.

  • An insanely giant asteroid, one around ten kilometers in diameter, would create an impact crater one hundred and eighty kilometers wide and twenty kilometers deep.

  • Beyond just the impact it would cause worldwide earthquakes and mega tsunamis over one hundred meters high.

  • Dust and ash thrown up into the atmosphere would cover the surface of the earth for years.

  • A massive die off of plants and animals would follow.

  • Basically the end-of-life as we know it.

  • And this has happened before.

  • An asteroid of roughly that size is what we think killed the dinosaurs.

  • And if an enormous asteroid the size of the earth were to hit, the planet would be completely obliterated, leaving nothing but the earth's core and creating a new asteroid belt between Venus and Mars.

  • But don't worry too much.

  • Giant asteroids the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs only hit the earth about every fifty to one hundred million years.

  • Of course, the last one was sixty-six million years ago so I guess you could say we are due.

The earth is constantly being hit by particles of dust, tiny rocks, and other space debris.

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