Merdeka.com – For more than 160 million years, dinosaurs have ruled the Earth. But the age of the dinosaurs ended when an asteroid the size of 10 kilometers hit Earth about 66 million years ago.
Earthquake earth, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, the climatic disasters that occurred after the impact. Eventually 75 percent of living things on Earth went extinct. But in the midst of extinction, the Earth survived.
Various questions also arise, such as whether the Earth can survive the asteroid apocalypse? Can Space Rocks Destroy the Earth? If the Earth had come alive after the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs, what could destroy the Earth?
The short answer is that an object as large as Earth could destroy the Earth. But the impact of that large object may not destroy the Earth, because the Earth was hit by a space object the size of Mars.
“An object larger than Mars hit the Earth early in its history and made the Moon without destroying the Earth,” said Brian Toon, professor of atmospheric and marine sciences at the University of Colorado.
Toon explained that Earth was hit by a Mars-sized planet called Theia 4.5 billion years ago. The collision threw rocky debris into space which eventually united and formed the moon.
Scientists speculate that the impact merged the core and mantle of planet Theia with Earth. Although it did not destroy the Earth, scientists explain that when the collision on Earth has living things, the collision will destroy all living things.
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A collision from a planet the size of Mars 6,700 kilometers wide or 500 times larger than the dinosaur-killing asteroid could not destroy the Earth. However, the Air Force and Space Administration (NASA) explained that an asteroid with a diameter of 140 meters and orbiting the Earth at a distance of 7.4 million kilometers could wipe out an entire city on Earth.
Gerrit L. Vershcuur, an astrophysicist at Rhodes College, USA, explained that civilizations on Earth could become extinct due to the impact of a 1 kilometer asteroid due to the global climate catastrophe. He explained that if the Earth was hit by an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, the impact could wipe out humans and other species.
“In general, the initial impact of the impact creates a large fireball that kills anyone who can see it. Then the dust from the impact and smoke from the fires blanketed the Earth, plunging our planet into what is called a impact winter, “explains Vershcuur.
Dust and toxic gases will cover the clouds so that sunlight cannot penetrate the Earth. Plants die because they cannot photosynthesize. After plants die, animals die too. But small animals and land animals can survive all of this.
That’s why NASA and other space agencies take the threat of a space asteroid impact seriously. They keep an eye out for dangerous objects that can threaten the Earth.
The good news is that NASA and other space agencies haven’t found a space object that could threaten Earth, at least for the next 100 years. However, if a space object threatens the Earth, NASA has prepared to conduct a trajectory change test as it did last September.
At that time, NASA crashed its unmanned spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos. NASA hopes the 160-meter asteroid’s trajectory will change.
Although Dimorphos is not heading towards Earth, through the Multiple Asteroid Diversion Test (DART) mission, NASA hopes to change the trajectory of other asteroids as a means of planetary defense.
Journalist Intern: Theofilus Jose Setiawan [pan]
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