• Question: is it possible that a meteor hits earth

    Asked by to Fiona, Kevin on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Kevin O'Dell

      Kevin O'Dell answered on 27 Jun 2014:

      Absolutely. Rocks from space, meteors, asteroids or whatever, are flying all over the place, and from time to time they hit earth. In fact a very big rock hit earth around Mexico about 65 million years ago, and this is though to have caused extinction of the dinosaurs.

      Small meteors hit earth all the time, but most burn up in our atmosphere before they hit us. The biggest meteor in recent history occurred in Russia on 30th June 1908 which caused a lot of damage, including destroying 80 million trees. If you want to find out more about it then look up the ‘Tunguska event’.

      A smaller meteor shower hit Russia last year. There is footage of that here:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21579422

Comments