• Question: Do you think a commet will ever hit Earth?

    Asked by arianarose3 to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I am not sure, but I think it could be possible. I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the ancient past when the Earth was very young, before there was life, lots of comets hit it. Also the Moon has been hit by comets before I think.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Sam is correct. There were millions of meteorites that hit earth before life existed and scientists believe a lot of the chemicals we are made up of came from these meteorites.

      I am unsure if a meteorite will hit Earth but there are lots of scientists looking so hopefully it can be spotted before it crashes.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      As far as I know, there are small bits from space continuously hitting the earth. I just don’T know whether they qualify as comets. But every time you see a shooting star, an object from space (like a rock or also just a piece of space junk, like defunct satellites) has entered our atmosphere. These objects get hot with the friction of the atmosphere, causing them to glow and burn.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      There is a lot of evidence that a small comet hit the earth in 1904, in a place called Tunguska in Russia. It was thankfully not in an area where a lot of people lived. In 1984 astronomers saw a comet hit Jupiter, which was very cool!

      It is likely that Earth will be hit by a comet at some point in its future, but it could be millions of years til that happens.

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