Jakarta –
Asteroids are one of the objects near Earth that could have an impact if they hit. The most devastating impact occurred 65 million years ago, causing the extinction of the dinosaur era.
Asteroid impacts are natural processes that shape the surface of planet Earth, like volcanoes. Asteroids will reach the surface or may explode above the ground due to the strong energy released when passing through the atmosphere.
According to The Planetary Society, there have been at least some of the largest asteroid impacts that have ever hit Earth. Following is the list.
5 Biggest Asteroids Ever Hit Earth
1. Asteroid Chicxulub
65 million years ago, this asteroid about 10 to 15 kilometers in diameter hit Earth in what is now Mexico.
As a result of this impact, as many as 70% of all species on Earth, including the dinosaurs, were wiped out. Not only that, geological records also give some indication of what happened.
The asteroid hit the waters, creating a mega-tsunami that spread from southeastern Mexico to Texas and Florida and into the shallow waters covering what is now called the Great Plains.
Like millions of shooting stars, it is known that all the material from the Chicxulub asteroid heats up until it glows when it re-enters the atmosphere, then heats the earth’s surface and triggers forest fires.
Meanwhile, the huge shockwave has also been described as being capable of triggering global earthquakes and possible volcanic eruptions. A cloud of superheated dust, ash and steam would have spread from the crater as the impact hit underground in less than a second.
Then this dust will cover the entire surface of the Earth for up to a decade and create a bad environment for living things.
2. Asteroid in Tunguska
In 1908 an asteroid or comet about 30 meters in diameter entered the atmosphere and exploded above ground in Tunguska, Russia. The effect of the explosion is estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima.
According to a report by The Planetary Society, the explosion in Tunguska knocked down around 80 million trees in an area of 2,150 square kilometers. Fortunately, this incident occurred in a remote area of Siberia and no casualties are expected.
3. Asteroid di Chelyabinsk
Still in Russia, precisely above the city of Chelyabinsk, an asteroid penetrated the atmosphere in 2013. However, this asteroid did not hit the ground because it exploded while still in the air.
Even so, this asteroid with a diameter of about 20 meters releases the same amount of energy as 500 kilotons of TNT. As a result, the explosion caused a shock wave that injured 1,500 people and damaged 7,200 buildings in six cities.
4. Asteroid di Vredefort
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the largest impact crater on Earth, the Vredefort crater in South Africa, was formed about 2 billion years ago, due to an asteroid impact.
Scientists estimate that the asteroid that hit the crater was 10 to 15 km in diameter.
“It was bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs, but long before the dinosaurs. The asteroid that formed the Vredefort crater was a huge disaster, most likely the same as the disaster that killed the dinosaurs,” said Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL ), in Live Science.
5. Asteroids in the Sudbury Basin, Ontario, Canada
The Sudbury Basin in Ontario, Canada is one of the oldest known impact craters on Earth.
A 2014 study in the journal Terra Nova showed that what formed the basin was not an ordinary asteroid, but a giant comet, or a mixture of rocks from pieces of asteroids and ice.
Researchers estimate that the impact occurred 1.8 billion years ago, with a comet diameter of between 9.6 km and 14 km.
However, due to erosion, the crater is almost unrecognizable. On the other hand, the nickel and iron mining industry is developing rapidly there.
“What they’re actually mining is asteroid remains,” Chodas said.
Watch the video “Scientists in England Start Examining Samples of the Asteroid Bennu”
(faz/nwk)
2024-02-06 03:00:00
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