Asteroid Collision With The Earth
Experiment
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To investigate the effects of an asteroid impact on Earth through a
small-scale simulation. I shall be measuring the depth of the crater
caused by a steel ball bearing being dropped from different heights
into sand.
I shall be dropping a steel ball into sand to simulate an asteroid
collision, because the asteroid would be roughly spherical and have a
high density, like the steel ball. The sand will react similarly to
how the Earth would if impacted on.
Planning
An asteroid, also called minor planet, or planetoid, is any one of a
host of small rocky astronomical objects found primarily between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter. By the 1990s, more than 7,000 asteroids
had been observed at two or more oppositions, and 5,000 of them had
been assigned numbers, which is done as soon as accurate orbital
elements have been determined.
Asteroids whose orbits cross that of the Earth on a nearly continuous
basis are called Apollo asteroids. About 91 of these asteroids have
definitely been identified. Some astronomers would like to mount a
full-scale search for such asteroids, partly out of a fear that they
may collide with the Earth.
Collisions with larger asteroids are rare, but smaller ones are more
numerous. It is estimated that a few asteroids with a diameter of 1 km
(0.6 mile) may collide with the Earth within a period of 1,000,000
years. If an asteroid of this size were to collide with the Earth, it
would produce an explosion with as much force as several hydrogen
bombs.
A short-term disturbance in the world's climate could result, and a
collision in the ocean could be catastrophic. Some investigators
believe that the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other land and
marine animals at the end of the Cretaceous Period (about 65 million
years ago) was triggered by the impact just north of the Yucatan
Peninsula of an asteroid or meteorite measuring some 10 km (6 miles)
However, asteroids are much more deadly. If over-sized meteor can wreck buildings and injure people, then a normal sized asteroid can easily wipe out species if it lands in the right place. As mentioned before, asteroids are much bigger than meteor and much more rare. According to the “Mail Online” 12,000 years ago some type of asteroid slammed into the Northern Canada and some scientist believe that wiped off the mammoths and caused the “Younger Dryas”. Another famous event of asteroids striking, that many scientist believe, was around 65 million years ago asteroids rained and killed of all the dinosaurs 75% of all the life on earth.
The "Snowball Earth Hypothesis" also known as the "Varangia glaciation" is a hypothesis presented in 2001 by Geologist Paul Hoffman. (Wikipedia, 2002)
Pterosaurs were not dinosaurs but were closely related, and existed for 150 million years beginning in the late Triassic period through the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods until eventually becoming extinct along with the rest of the earth’s population at what is now known as the KT boundary event. The KT boundary event was the mass extinction that occurred at some point in time between the Cretaceous (K) and the Tertiary (T). This is famous because it marks the end of the 160 million years of dinosaur life. The theory is that asteroid rock hit the earth and caused the mass extinction. 1
Armageddon begins by showing the destruction of the Earth by an asteroid 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs inhabited the earth. According to the narration, the asteroid is said to have been six miles wide, with the power of 10,000 nuclear weapons. The after effects were trillions of tons of dirt and rock thrown into the atmosphere, creating a blanket of dust that the sun was unable to penetrate for 1,000 years. The narrator explained that it happened once, and that it would happen again, it was only a matter of when.
It was the beginning of the Space Race in 1958. The USSR, also known as the Soviet Union, had recently launched the first ever satellite, Sputnik 1. The Americans had already been planning the launch of a satellite, but this event accelerated the timeline. Immediately following the launch, the United States of America leaped into action with the creation of NASA on July 29, 1958. It would be a peaceful organization that would be responsible for and science and technology regarding space. Moreover, NASA then went on to create new technology that influenced everyday life, such as artificial limbs and CAT (computerized axial tomography) scans. In the past and present, NASA impacted the world by putting a man on the moon and now plans to
Sex, drugs, and disasters are both popular topics that grab public attention and scientific theories of the extinction of dinosaurs. While sex and drug hypotheses represent silly speculations, the disaster claim is good science: it provides testable evidence, has an impact on other scientific fields, and generates continuous research.
The Half Earth Plan: A review of the effectiveness, costs and alternative approaches of habitat corridors for biodiversity conservation
That rock would hit here I know it, but I’m dedicated to learn. College got intense and stressful with that meteor coming. Although I’m staying, no matter what. Ok what do I have to do? Oh, class picking.
He figures out which ones are coming our way, and whether or not they are a threat (Kluger 1). Astronomers estimate that one in a thousand asteroids that pass our Earth will hit us (Booth 98). This may not seem like very many, until you consider that we are hit with at least one basketball sized asteroid every day (Kluger 6). So what happens when our one sizeable asteroid a day ends up being the size of a mountain? Well, if it happened today, we would surely be dead.
A 150-kilometer wide asteroid blocked out the sun for long enough to kill all of the planets and so dinosaurs had no food.Even the carnivores died of starvation because the other dinosaurs will die so they will have no food.
The most significant event of the Cretaceous era came at its end. Nearly 65 million years ago, the second most severe mass extinction in earth’s history occurred. This resulted in the loss of around 80% of species living at the time. Though nowhere near as severe as the end-Permian mass extinction, the end-Cretaceous extinction is the most well known mass extinction event. This is due to the violent event that caused it the extinction, as well as the chapter of earth’s history that it closed: the Dinosaurs. The Cretaceous Event ( often shortened to K-T event) Of the animals that were killed off were the flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and the last few mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both early marine reptiles. Many mollusks and species of microscopic plankton were killed. Terrestrial plants suffered mass extinction as well. Almost 60% of terrestrial plants were lost. This led to high extinction rates among insect populations, especially insects that were highly specialized to feed on just a few types of plants had it the worst. It took approximately 9 million years for the global insect populations to recover from the Cretaceous extinction. Immediately after the extinction, the earth saw an explosion of short term species who respond well to fire, or other external disturbance. Evidence of the catastrophe comes from a thin rock layer deposited worldwide just after the impact. It is dominated by fossil plants whose descendants recover quickly after fires of other disturbances, such as Fire Weed in Alaska. The causes of the Cretaceous extinction are still being debated by paleontologists. Scientists agree that the main cause of the extinction was a...
Several mass extinctions have occurred during the Earth’s history. The Cretaceous – Tertiary Boundary (K-T) Extinction caused the loss of at least three-quarters of all species known at that time including the dinosaurs. The cause of this mass extinction is a controversial subject among scientists but the fossil evidence of it’s occurrence is abundant.
Asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter; this is called the Asteroid belt or Main belt. The asteroid belt has been said to probably contain millions of asteroids that are all different. There are more than 20,000 numbered asteroids. Some times asteroids get knocked off the asteroid belt. As asteroids revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits, Jupiter’s gravity and getting to close to Mars or another asteroid can change an asteroids path, this could send an asteroid out of the asteroid belt and into space across the orbits of other planets. An example of asteroid orbits changing is Mar’s moons Phobos and Deimos. These were asteroids that went to close to Mars and got caught in its orbit.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, (2012, April), Orbital Debris Quarterly News. Volume 16, Issue 2