WI a comet, or asteroid, hit Earth?

[bard32]

According to the 1977 Larry Niven-Jerry Pournelle science fiction novel Lucifer's Hammer, Earth is hit by a comet and civilization, as we know it,
comes to an end. In the 1985 Larry Niven-Jerry Pournelle science fiction novel,
Footfall, aliens from Alpha Centauri, use an asteroid as a precursor to the invasion of Earth. Recently, there was a Discovery Channel special about a
comet hitting Earth. WI a comet, or asteroid, hit Earth?

 

[Doctor What]

How big is this comet/asteroid?

 

[CalBear]

It happens on a regular basis.

Most of the time the object is about the size of a softball.


So what happens? Nothing especially noteworthy.

 

[bard32]

How big is this comet/asteroid?

The Discovery Channel special, the name escapes me right now, didn't say.
Neither did the two books I referenced. Let's say an asteroid of about six to
ten miles in diameter. The comet? Take your best guess. It wouldn't even have to hit Earth to do its worst. If it exploded in the atmosphere, it would be similar to an airburst weapon. Flowering plants, trees, and grass, would be
killed. Fungi would survive.

 

[aktarian]

all the dinosaurs go extinct. which would do wonders for politics

 

[boredatwork]

all the dinosaurs go extinct. which would do wonders for politics

especially in Mexico.

 

[Doctor What]

Neither did the two books I referenced. Let's say an asteroid of about six to
ten miles in diameter.

The dino-killer was this size.

The comet? Take your best guess. It wouldn't even have to hit Earth to do its worst. If it exploded in the atmosphere, it would be similar to an airburst weapon. Flowering plants, trees, and grass, would be
killed. Fungi would survive.

Once again--how big?

Earth gets hit with stuff all the time.

A Tunguska size explosion (rock/comet roughly 200 feet across --roughly 20 megaton blast on impact) hits Earth once a century or so. Smaller stuff that can still do serious damage (Meteor Crater in Arizona -- projectile roughly 100 feet across -- large A-bomb blast [several hundred kiloton] on impact) occurs a few times a century.

Smaller stuff that are barely noticeable even to those in the immediate area happen a few times a year.

Really smaller stuff happen every day.

Here be asteroid calculator -- go have fun now....

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

 

[Finn]

A Tunguska size explosion (rock/comet roughly 200 feet across --roughly 20 megaton blast on impact) hits Earth once a century or so.

We're due. Well, not really, these things don't happen in timed intervals. Wasn't there a meteor that almost hit Texas recently?

 

[Markus]

It happens on a regular basis.

Most of the time the object is about the size of a softball.


So what happens? Nothing especially noteworthy.

Stop feeding him!

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=96276

 

[Doctor What]

We're due. Well, not really, these things don't happen in timed intervals. Wasn't there a meteor that almost hit Texas recently?

Don't know but there was one that hit the Mediterranean Sea (or rather--blew up over the Mediterranean Sea) near Greece and Libya back in June 2002. That was estimated to be about 30 feet across and the explosion was about 30 kilotons in size.

And yeah--not exactly timed intervals. All the numbers are guesses really.

The flux of small near-Earth objects colliding with the Earth --look on the second page for a table of known impact events between 1991-2002.

Using the best fit of these satellite data and extrapolating the
power law to higher energies, we find that the Earth is struck by an
object with the energy of Tunguska (assumed to be 10 Mton) every
1,000 years (with an allowed range from 400 to 1,800 years on
the basis of our most extreme assumptions for luminous efficiency).
We estimate that the Earth is on average struck annually by an object
of energy ~5 kton (with a possible range of 2–10 kton), and struck
each month by an object with 0.3 kton of energy. Every ten years, an
object of energy ~50 kton strikes Earth

Here be fancy-ass impact calculator with all kinds of bells and whistles.

http://down2earth.eu/impact_calculator/

 

[Theodoric]

We're due. Well, not really, these things don't happen in timed intervals. Wasn't there a meteor that almost hit Texas recently?

Most of them luckily tend to hit places low or not populated placed, so it can take a while for people to hear about it. I saw a picture of a rather recent impact crater somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, and it was only discovered after someone saw a huge hole in the ground when flying over it, probably a week after its impact.

Which makes us wonder; if a meteor crashes in a desert in Texas, does it make a sound?

 

[Bear Flag Oligarch]

Does anyone who is not a Texan care?

 

[SRT]

Most of them luckily tend to hit places low or not populated placed, so it can take a while for people to hear about it. I saw a picture of a rather recent impact crater somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, and it was only discovered after someone saw a huge hole in the ground when flying over it, probably a week after its impact.

Which makes us wonder; if a meteor crashes in a desert in Texas, does it make a sound?

You'd have to ask the militiamen who arrested it after it illegally immigrated into the U.S.