• Question: What are the chances of an asteroid hitting earth?

    Asked by jamesagrear to Sam on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      So asteroids hit earth all the time – there was a meteor this year in Russia that broke windows when it burst in the atmosphere. Lots of people recorded it happening (a lot of people in Russia have cameras in their cars in case they have an accident and need to prove it wasn’t their fault!). There was also one (also in Russia) 100 years ago that blew up part of a forest – look up the “Tunguska blast”. A ship was also damaged by a meteorite almost 100 years ago.

      (Just in case you’re confused – an asteroid is a rock in space, a meteor is when it falls into the atmosphere and burns up, a meteorite is when it hits the ground. Confusing! But still.)

      As for one that could wipe us out – this hasn’t happened for millions of years (when the dinosaurs were killed). Plus in the future we could build something to move the asteroid away before it hit us. So we should (hopefully!) be safe.

Comments