4 ms·

Am I the only one who read the article hoping for a "If it DID hit the earth, X would happen..."?

• aaronbrethorst 15y ago
  The object that caused the 1908 Tunguska event is estimated to be either 40 or 60 meters in diameter[1], and it still managed to do an incredible amount of damage[2]. The object described here has a diameter of 400 meters. My understanding is that this wouldn't be anywhere near as devastating as the impact associated with the K-T extinction event, but it certainly wouldn't be very good for anyone. [1] http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/news_detail.cfm?ID=179 http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/news_detail.cfm?ID=179 [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
• bh42222 15y ago
  A couple of nights ago a had strange dream about asteroids hitting earth. Didn't think much of it... still don't think much it.... but I would like to know where this would hit if it were to hit.
  • orblivion 15y ago
    That's kindof like not having a sweater, and asking what color it would be if you had one. If you alter reality such that it would hit, I think you sortof have your arbitrary choice of where.
    • hugh3 15y ago
      Hmm, I wonder if the poles would get hit less often than the tropics due to the distribution of asteroids being more or less in the ecliptic, or whether that's not sufficiently significant. Probably not -- I don't know of any latitude-dependent distribution of lunar craters.