Can asteroids destroy the Earth? | space

SPACE — After dominating the Earth for more than 160 million years, dinosaurs have finally met their end at the hands of uninvited guests from outer space. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid at least 10 kilometers in diameter dealt a major blow to the dinosaur world, causing earthquakes, mega tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and climatic disasters. Soon, 75 percent of all living things on earth became extinct.

But the big asteroid collision didn’t destroy the Earth. Our planet persists and grows new life to this day. In fact, if you look further, the dinosaur-killing asteroid collision wasn’t the biggest one to hit earth. The asteroid Armageddon, which is twice as big, hit the Earth 2 billion years ago.

Does this mean that our planet is invulnerable to asteroids? Or would it take a rock the size of a planet to completely destroy our planet? The answer is, maybe. Because, early in its formation, the Earth had collided with a very large celestial body, more than half the size of the Earth.

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“An object larger than Mars hit the Earth early in its history and created the moon, without destroying the Earth,” said Brian Toon, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Toon is referring to the Giant Impact Hypothesis, a scientific theory that suggests a Mars-sized planet called Theia collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago. The collision sent a salvo of rocky debris into space that eventually merged into our beautiful moon. Mars is 6,700km in size, 500 times larger than the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs.

Instead of obliterating our planet, scientists theorize that parts of Theia’s core and mantle merged with Earth, buried for thousands of years when life first evolved. Experts disagree on whether this ancient collision happened in person or was just a graze hit (just hit). However, there was no doubt that if anything were living on Earth at that time, Theia would have exterminated it. Scientists think life emerged as early as 4.4 billion years ago, a few million years after the Theia impact. Source: LiveScience