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Damage to trees caused by theTunguska event.The object, just 50–80 metres (150–240 feet) across, exploded 6–10 km (4–6 miles) above the surface, shattering windows hundreds of km away.

Animpact eventis acollisionbetweenastronomical objectscausing measurable effects.[1]Impact events have been found to regularly occur inplanetary systems,though the most frequent involveasteroids,cometsormeteoroidsand have minimal effect. When large objects impactterrestrial planetssuch as theEarth,there can be significant physical and biospheric consequences, as the impacting body is usually traveling at several kilometres a second (a minimum of 11.2 km/s (7.0 mi/s) for an Earth impacting body[2]), though atmospheres mitigate many surface impacts throughatmospheric entry.Impact cratersandstructuresare dominant landforms on many of theSolar System's solid objects and present the strongest empirical evidence for their frequency and scale.

Impact events appear to have played a significant role in theevolution of the Solar Systemsince its formation. Major impact events have significantly shapedEarth's history,and have been implicated in theformation of the Earth–Moon system.Impact events also appear to have played a significant role in theevolutionary history of life.Impacts may have helped deliver the building blocks for life (thepanspermiatheory relies on this premise). Impacts have been suggested as theorigin of water on Earth.They have also been implicated in severalmass extinctions.The prehistoricChicxulub impact,66 million years ago, is believed to not only be the cause of theCretaceous–Paleogene extinction event[3]but acceleration of theevolution of mammals,leading to their dominance and, in turn, setting in place conditions for the eventual rise ofhumans.[4]

Throughout recorded history, hundreds of Earth impacts (and explodingbolides) have been reported, with some occurrences causing deaths, injuries, property damage, or other significant localised consequences.[5]One of the best-known recorded events in modern times was theTunguska event,which occurred inSiberia,Russia, in 1908. The 2013Chelyabinsk meteorevent is the only known such incident in modern times to result in numerous injuries. Its meteor is the largest recorded object to have encountered the Earth since the Tunguska event. TheComet Shoemaker–Levy 9impact provided the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects, when the comet broke apart and collided with Jupiter in July 1994. An extrasolar impact was observed in 2013, when a massive terrestrial planet impact was detected around the star ID8 in the star clusterNGC 2547by NASA'sSpitzer Space Telescopeand confirmed by ground observations.[6]Impact events have been a plot and background element inscience fiction.

In April 2018, theB612 Foundationreported: "It's 100 percent certain we'll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 percent certain when."[7]Also in 2018, physicistStephen Hawkingconsidered in his final bookBrief Answers to the Big Questionsthat an asteroid collision was the biggest threat to the planet.[8][9]In June 2018, the USNational Science and Technology Councilwarned that America is unprepared for an asteroid impact event, and has developed and released the "National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy Action Plan" to better prepare.[10][11][12][13][14]According to expert testimony in theUnited States Congressin 2013,NASAwould require at least five years of preparation beforea mission to intercept an asteroidcould be launched.[15]On 26 September 2022, theDouble Asteroid Redirection Testdemonstrated the deflection of an asteroid. It was the first such experiment to be carried out by humankind and was considered to be highly successful. The orbital period of the target body was changed by 32 minutes. The criterion for success was a change of more than 73 seconds.

Impacts and the Earth

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World map inequirectangular projectionof theimpact structureson theEarth Impact Databaseas of November 2017 (inthe SVG file,hover over a structure to show its details)
See also:List of impact structures on Earth

Major impact events have significantly shapedEarth's history,having been implicated in theformation of the Earth–Moon system,theevolutionary history of life,theorigin of water on Earth,and severalmass extinctions.Impact structuresare the result of impact events on solid objects and, as the dominant landforms on many of the System's solid objects, present the most solid evidence of prehistoric events. Notable impact events include the hypothesizedLate Heavy Bombardment,which would have occurred early in the history of the Earth–Moon system, and the confirmedChicxulub impact66 million years ago, believed to be the cause of theCretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Frequency and risk

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Main article:Asteroid impact avoidance
Frequency of small asteroids roughly 1 to 20 meters in diameter impacting Earth's atmosphere.
A bolide undergoing atmospheric entry

Small objects frequently collide with Earth. There is aninverse relationshipbetween the size of the object and the frequency of such events. The lunar cratering record shows that the frequency of impacts decreases as approximately thecubeof the resulting crater's diameter, which is on average proportional to the diameter of the impactor.[16]Asteroids with a 1 km (0.62 mi) diameter strike Earth every 500,000 years on average.[17][18]Large collisions – with 5 km (3 mi) objects – happen approximately once every twenty million years.[19]The last known impact of an object of 10 km (6 mi) or more in diameter was at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago.[20]

The energy released by an impactor depends on diameter, density, velocity, and angle.[19]The diameter of most near-Earth asteroids that have not been studied by radar or infrared can generally only be estimated within about a factor of two, by basing it on the asteroid's brightness. The density is generally assumed, because the diameter and mass, from which density can be calculated, are also generally estimated. Due toEarth's escape velocity,the minimum impact velocity is11 km/swith asteroid impacts averaging around 17 km/s on the Earth.[19]The most probable impact angle is 45 degrees.[19]

Impact conditions such as asteroid size and speed, but also density and impact angle determine the kinetic energy released in an impact event. The more energy is released, the more damage is likely to occur on the ground due to the environmental effects triggered by the impact. Such effects can be shock waves, heat radiation, the formation of craters with associated earthquakes, and tsunamis if bodies of water are hit. Human populations are vulnerable to these effects if they live within the affected zone.[1]Largeseiche wavesarising from earthquakes and large-scale deposit of debris can also occur within minutes of impact, thousands of kilometres from impact.[21]

Airbursts

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Further information:Meteor air burst

Stony asteroids with a diameter of 4 meters (13 ft) enter Earth's atmosphere about once a year.[19]Asteroids with a diameter of 7 meters enter the atmosphere about every 5 years with as muchkinetic energyasthe atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima(approximately 16kilotonsof TNT), but theair burstis reduced to just 5 kilotons.[19]These ordinarily explode in theupper atmosphereand most or all of the solids arevaporized.[22]However, asteroids with a diameter of 20 m (66 ft), and which strike Earth approximately twice every century, produce more powerful airbursts. The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor was estimated to be about 20 m in diameter with an airburst of around 500 kilotons, an explosion 30 times the Hiroshima bomb impact. Much larger objects may impact the solid earth and create a crater.

Stony asteroid impacts that generate an airburst[19]
Impactor
diameter		 Kinetic energyat Airburst
altitude		 Average
frequency
(years)		 Recorded fireballs
(CNEOS)
(1988–2018)
atmospheric
entry 		airburst
4m(13ft) 3kt 0.75 kt 42.5km(139,000ft) 1.3 54
7 m (23 ft) 16 kt 5 kt 36.3 km (119,000 ft) 4.6 15
10 m (33 ft) 47 kt 19 kt 31.9 km (105,000 ft) 10 2
15 m (49 ft) 159 kt 82 kt 26.4 km (87,000 ft) 27 1
20 m (66 ft) 376 kt 230 kt 22.4 km (73,000 ft) 60 1
30 m (98 ft) 1.3Mt 930 kt 16.5 km (54,000 ft) 185 0
50 m (160 ft) 5.9 Mt 5.2 Mt 8.7 km (29,000 ft) 764 0
70 m (230 ft) 16 Mt 15.2 Mt 3.6 km (12,000 ft) 1,900 0
85 m (279 ft) 29 Mt 28 Mt 0.58 km (1,900 ft) 3,300 0
Based on density of 2600 kg/m3,speed of 17 km/s, and an impact angle of 45°
Stony asteroids that impact sedimentary rock and create a crater[19]
Impactor
diameter		 Kinetic energyat Crater
diameter		 Frequency
(years)
atmospheric
entry 		impact
100m(330ft) 47Mt 3.4 Mt 1.2km(0.75mi) 5,200
130 m (430 ft) 103 Mt 31.4 Mt 2 km (1.2 mi) 11,000
150 m (490 ft) 159 Mt 71.5 Mt 2.4 km (1.5 mi) 16,000
200 m (660 ft) 376 Mt 261 Mt 3 km (1.9 mi) 36,000
250 m (820 ft) 734 Mt 598 Mt 3.8 km (2.4 mi) 59,000
300 m (980 ft) 1270 Mt 1110 Mt 4.6 km (2.9 mi) 73,000
400 m (1,300 ft) 3010 Mt 2800 Mt 6 km (3.7 mi) 100,000
700 m (2,300 ft) 16100 Mt 15700 Mt 10 km (6.2 mi) 190,000
1,000 m (3,300 ft) 47000 Mt 46300 Mt 13.6 km (8.5 mi) 440,000
Based onρ= 2600 kg/m3;v= 17 km/s; and an angle of 45°

Objects with a diameter less than 1 m (3.3 ft) are calledmeteoroidsand seldom make it to the ground to become meteorites. An estimated 500 meteorites reach the surface each year, but only 5 or 6 of these typically create aweather radarsignature with astrewn fieldlarge enough to be recovered and be made known to scientists.

The lateEugene Shoemakerof theU.S. Geological Surveyestimated the rate of Earth impacts, concluding that an event about the size of the nuclear weapon that destroyedHiroshimaoccurs about once a year.[citation needed]Such events would seem to be spectacularly obvious, but they generally go unnoticed for a number of reasons: the majority of the Earth's surface is covered by water; a good portion of the land surface is uninhabited; and the explosions generally occur at relatively high altitude, resulting in a huge flash and thunderclap but no real damage.[citation needed]

Although no human is known to have been killed directly by an impact[disputed–discuss],over 1000 people were injured by the Chelyabinsk meteor airburst event over Russia in 2013.[23]In 2005 it was estimated that the chance of a single person born today dying due to an impact is around 1 in 200,000.[24]The two to four-meter-sized asteroids2008 TC3,2014 AA,2018 LA,2019 MO,2022 EB5,and the suspected artificial satelliteWT1190Fare the only known objects to be detected before impacting the Earth.[25][26][27]

Geological significance

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Impacts have had, during the history of the Earth, a significant geological and climatic influence.[28][29]

TheMoon's existence is widely attributed to ahuge impact early in Earth's history.[30]Impact events earlier in thehistory of Earthhave been credited with creative as well as destructive events; it has been proposed that impacting comets delivered the Earth's water, and some have suggested that theorigins of lifemay have been influenced by impacting objects by bringing organic chemicals or lifeforms to the Earth's surface, a theory known asexogenesis.

Eugene Merle Shoemakerwas first to prove thatmeteoriteimpacts have affected the Earth.

These modified views of Earth's history did not emerge until relatively recently, chiefly due to a lack of direct observations and the difficulty in recognizing the signs of an Earth impact because of erosion and weathering. Large-scale terrestrial impacts of the sort that produced theBarringer Crater,locally known asMeteor Crater,east of Flagstaff, Arizona, are rare. Instead, it was widely thought that cratering was the result ofvolcanism:the Barringer Crater, for example, was ascribed to a prehistoric volcanic explosion (not an unreasonable hypothesis, given that the volcanicSan Francisco Peaksstand only 48 km or 30 mi to the west). Similarly, the craters on the surface of the Moon were ascribed to volcanism.

It was not until 1903–1905 that the Barringer Crater was correctly identified as an impact crater, and it was not until as recently as 1963 that research byEugene Merle Shoemakerconclusively proved this hypothesis. The findings of late 20th-centuryspace explorationand the work of scientists such as Shoemaker demonstrated that impact cratering was by far the most widespread geological process at work on the Solar System's solid bodies. Every surveyed solid body in the Solar System was found to be cratered, and there was no reason to believe that the Earth had somehow escaped bombardment from space. In the last few decades of the 20th century, a large number of highly modified impact craters began to be identified. The first direct observation of a major impact event occurred in 1994: the collision of thecomet Shoemaker-Levy 9withJupiter.

Based on crater formation rates determined from the Earth's closest celestial partner, the Moon,astrogeologistshave determined that during the last 600 million years, the Earth has been struck by 60 objects of a diameter of 5 km (3 mi) or more.[17]The smallest of these impactors would leave a crater almost 100 km (60 mi) across. Only three confirmed craters from that time period with that size or greater have been found:Chicxulub,Popigai,andManicouagan,and all three have been suspected of being linked toextinction events[31][32]though only Chicxulub, the largest of the three, has been consistently considered. The impact that causedMistastin cratergenerated temperatures exceeding 2,370 °C, the highest known to have occurred on the surface of the Earth.[33]

Besides the direct effect of asteroid impacts on a planet's surface topography, global climate and life, recent studies have shown that several consecutive impacts might have an effect on thedynamo mechanismat a planet's core responsible for maintaining themagnetic field of the planet,and may have contributed to Mars' lack of current magnetic field.[34]An impact event may cause amantle plume(volcanism) at theantipodal pointof the impact.[35]The Chicxulub impact may have increased volcanism atmid-ocean ridges[36]and has been proposed to have triggeredflood basalt volcanismat theDeccan Traps.[37]

While numerous impact craters have been confirmed on land or in the shallow seas overcontinental shelves,no impact craters in the deep ocean have been widely accepted by the scientific community.[38]Impacts of projectiles as large as one km in diameter are generally thought to explode before reaching the sea floor, but it is unknown what would happen if a much larger impactor struck the deep ocean. The lack of a crater, however, does not mean that an ocean impact would not have dangerous implications for humanity. Some scholars have argued that an impact event in anoceanorseamay create amegatsunami,which can cause destruction both at sea and on land along the coast,[39]but this is disputed.[40]TheEltanin impactinto thePacific Ocean2.5 Mya is thought to involve an object about 1 to 4 kilometres (0.62 to 2.49 mi) across but remains craterless.

Biospheric effects

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The effect of impact events on the biosphere has been the subject of scientific debate. Several theories of impact-related mass extinction have been developed. In the past 500 million years there have been five generally accepted major mass extinctions that on average extinguished half of allspecies.[41]One of the largest mass extinctions to have affectedlife on Earthwas thePermian-Triassic,which ended thePermianperiod 250 million years ago and killed off 90 percent of all species;[42]life on Earth took 30 million years to recover.[43]The cause of the Permian-Triassic extinction is still a matter of debate; the age and origin of proposed impact craters, i.e. theBedoutHigh structure, hypothesized to be associated with it are still controversial.[44]The last such mass extinction led to the demise of the non-aviandinosaursand coincided with a largemeteoriteimpact; this is the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event (also known as the K–T or K–Pg extinction event), which occurred 66 million years ago. There is no definitive evidence of impacts leading to the three other major mass extinctions.

In 1980, physicistLuis Alvarez;his son, geologistWalter Alvarez;and nuclear chemists Frank Asaro and Helen V. Michael from theUniversity of California, Berkeleydiscovered unusually high concentrations ofiridiumin a specific layer of rockstratain the Earth's crust. Iridium is an element that is rare on Earth but relatively abundant in many meteorites. From the amount and distribution of iridium present in the 65-million-year-old "iridium layer", the Alvarez team later estimated that an asteroid of 10 to 14 km (6 to 9 mi) must have collided with Earth. This iridium layer at theCretaceous–Paleogene boundaryhas been found worldwide at 100 different sites. Multidirectionallyshocked quartz(coesite), which is normally associated with large impact events[45]oratomic bombexplosions, has also been found in the same layer at more than 30 sites.Sootandashat levels tens of thousands times normal levels were found with the above.

Anomalies in chromium isotopic ratios found within theK-T boundarylayer strongly support the impact theory.[46]Chromium isotopic ratios are homogeneous within the earth, and therefore these isotopic anomalies exclude a volcanic origin, which has also been proposed as a cause for the iridium enrichment. Further, the chromium isotopic ratios measured in the K-T boundary are similar to the chromium isotopic ratios found incarbonaceous chondrites.Thus a probable candidate for the impactor is a carbonaceous asteroid, but a comet is also possible because comets are assumed to consist of material similar to carbonaceous chondrites.

Probably the most convincing evidence for a worldwide catastrophe was the discovery of the crater which has since been namedChicxulub Crater.This crater is centered on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and was discovered by Tony Camargo and Glen Penfield while working asgeophysicistsfor the Mexican oil companyPEMEX.[47]What they reported as a circular feature later turned out to be a crater estimated to be 180 km (110 mi) in diameter. This convinced the vast majority of scientists that this extinction resulted from a point event that is most probably an extraterrestrial impact and not from increased volcanism and climate change (which would spread its main effect over a much longer time period).

Although there is now general agreement that there was a huge impact at the end of the Cretaceous that led to the iridium enrichment of the K-T boundary layer, remnants have been found of other, smaller impacts, some nearing half the size of the Chicxulub crater, which did not result in any mass extinctions, and there is no clear linkage between an impact and any other incident of mass extinction.[41]

PaleontologistsDavid M. RaupandJack Sepkoskihave proposed that an excess of extinction events occurs roughly every 26 million years (though many are relatively minor). This led physicistRichard A. Mullerto suggest that these extinctions could be due to a hypothetical companion star to the Sun calledNemesisperiodically disrupting the orbits of comets in theOort cloud,leading to a large increase in the number of comets reaching the inner Solar System where they might hit Earth. PhysicistAdrian Melottand paleontologistRichard Bambachhave more recently verified the Raup and Sepkoski finding, but argue that it is not consistent with the characteristics expected of a Nemesis-style periodicity.[48]

Sociological and cultural effects

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See also:End of civilization

An impact event is commonly seen as a scenario that would bring about theend of civilization.In 2000,Discovermagazinepublished a list of 20 possible suddendoomsday scenarioswith an impact event listed as the most likely to occur.[49]

A jointPew Research Center/Smithsoniansurvey from April 21 to 26, 2010 found that 31 percent of Americans believed that an asteroid will collide with Earth by 2050. A majority (61 percent) disagreed.[50]

Earth impacts

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Artist's depiction of a collision between two planetary bodies. Such an impact between the Earth and a Mars-sized object likelyformed the Moon.

In the early history of the Earth (about four billion years ago), bolide impacts were almost certainly common since the Solar System contained far more discrete bodies than at present. Such impacts could have included strikes by asteroids hundreds of kilometers in diameter, with explosions so powerful that they vaporized all the Earth's oceans. It was not until this heavy bombardment slackened that life appears to have begun to evolve on Earth.

Precambrian

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The leading theory of the Moon's origin is the giant impact theory, which postulates that Earth was once hit by aplanetoidthe size of Mars; such a theory is able to explain the size and composition of the Moon, something not done by other theories of lunar formation.[51]

According to the theory of theLate Heavy Bombardment,there should have been 22,000 or more impact craters with diameters >20 km (12 mi), about 40 impact basins with diameters about 1,000 km (620 mi), and several impact basins with diameters about 5,000 km (3,100 mi). However, hundreds of millions of years of deformation at the Earth's crust pose significant challenges to conclusively identifying impacts from this period. Only two pieces of pristinelithosphereare believed to remain from this era:Kaapvaal Craton(in contemporary South Africa) andPilbara Craton(in contemporary Western Australia) to search within which may potentially reveal evidence in the form of physical craters. Other methods may be used to identify impacts from this period, for example, indirect gravitational or magnetic analysis of the mantle, but may prove inconclusive.

In 2021, evidence for a probable impact 3.46 billion-years ago at Pilbara Craton has been found in the form of a 150 kilometres (93 mi) crater created by the impact of a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) asteroid (named "The Apex Asteroid" ) into the sea at a depth of 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) (near the site ofMarble Bar, Western Australia).[52]The event caused global tsunamis. It is also coincidental to some of the earliest evidence of life on Earth, fossilizedStromatolites.

Evidence of a massive impact, (named S2; "S" forSpherule),[53]in South Africa near a geological formation known as theBarberton Greenstone Beltwas uncovered by scientists in 2014. They estimated the impact occurred at Kaapvaal Craton (South Africa) about 3.26 billion years ago and that the impactor was approximately 37–58 kilometers (23–36 miles) wide. The crater from this event, if it still exists, has not yet been found.[54]

TheManiitsoq structure,dated to around 3 billion years old (3 Ga), was once thought to be the result of an impact;[55][56]however, follow-up studies have not confirmed its nature as an impact structure.[56][57][58][59][60][61]The Maniitsoq structure is not recognised as an impact structure by theEarth Impact Database.[62]

In 2020, scientists discovered the world's oldest confirmed impact crater, theYarrabubba crater,caused by an impact that occurred inYilgarn Craton(what is nowWestern Australia), dated at more than 2.2 billion years ago with the impactor estimated to be around 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) wide.[63][64][65]It is believed that, at this time, the Earth was mostly or completely frozen, commonly called theHuronian glaciation.

TheVredefort impact event,which occurred around 2 billion years ago inKaapvaal Craton(what is nowSouth Africa), caused the largest verified crater, a multi-ringed structure 160–300 km (100–200 mi) across, forming from an impactor approximately 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) in diameter.[66][67]

TheSudbury impact eventoccurred on theNuna supercontinent(nowCanada) from a bolide approximately 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) in diameter approximately 1.849 billion years ago[68]Debris from the event would have been scattered across the globe.

Paleozoic and Mesozoic

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Two 10-kilometre sized asteroids are now believed to have struck Australia between 360 and 300 million years ago at theWestern WarburtonandEast Warburton Basins,creating a 400-kilometre impact zone. According to evidence found in 2015, it is the largest ever recorded.[69]Athird, possible impactwas also identified in 2015 to the north, on the upperDiamantina River,also believed to have been caused by an asteroid 10 km across about 300 million years ago, but further studies are needed to establish that this crustal anomaly was indeed the result of an impact event.[70]

An animation modelling the impact, and subsequent crater formation of the Chicxulub impact (University of Arizona, Space Imagery Center)

The prehistoricChicxulub impact,66 million years ago, believed to be the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, was caused by an asteroid estimated to be about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) wide.[3]

Paleogene

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The Hiawatha impact crater in Greenland is buried under more than a kilometre of ice

Analysis of theHiawatha Glacierreveals the presence of a 31 km wide impact crater dated at 58 million years of age, less than 10 million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, scientists believe that the impactor was a metallic asteroid with a diameter in the order of 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi). The impact would have had global effects.[71]

Pleistocene

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Further information:Pleistocene
Aerial view ofBarringer CraterinArizona

Artifactsrecovered withtektitesfrom the 803,000-year-oldAustralasian strewnfieldevent in Asia link aHomo erectuspopulation to a significant meteorite impact and its aftermath.[72][73][74]Significant examples of Pleistocene impacts include theLonar crater lakein India, approximately 52,000 years old (though a study published in 2010 gives a much greater age), which now has a flourishing semi-tropical jungle around it.[citation needed]

Holocene

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Further information:Holocene

TheRio Cuarto cratersin Argentina were produced approximately 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Holocene. If proved to be impact craters, they would be the first impact of the Holocene.

TheCampo del Cielo( "Field of Heaven" ) refers to an area bordering Argentina'sChaco Provincewhere a group of iron meteorites were found, estimated as dating to 4,000–5,000 years ago. It first came to attention of Spanish authorities in 1576; in 2015, police arrested four alleged smugglers trying to steal more than a ton of protected meteorites.[75]TheHenbury cratersin Australia (~5,000 years old) andKaali cratersin Estonia (~2,700 years old) were apparently produced by objects that broke up before impact.[76][citation needed]

Whitecourt craterin Alberta, Canada is estimated to be between 1,080 and 1,130 years old. The crater is approximately 36 m (118 ft) in diameter and 9 m (30 ft) deep, is heavily forested and was discovered in 2007 when a metal detector revealed fragments of meteoric iron scattered around the area.[77][78]

A Chinese record states that 10,000 people were killed in the 1490Qingyang eventwith the deaths caused by a hail of "falling stones"; some astronomers hypothesize that this may describe an actual meteorite fall, although they find the number of deaths implausible.[79]

Kamil Crater,discovered fromGoogle Earthimage review inEgypt,45 m (148 ft) in diameter and 10 m (33 ft) deep, is thought to have been formed less than 3,500 years ago in a then-unpopulated region of western Egypt. It was found February 19, 2009 by V. de Michelle on a Google Earth image of the East Uweinat Desert, Egypt.[80]

20th-century impacts

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Trees knocked over by theTunguska blast

One of the best-known recorded impacts in modern times was the Tunguska event, which occurred inSiberia,Russia, in 1908.[81]This incident involved an explosion that was probably caused by the airburst of an asteroid or comet 5 to 10 km (3.1 to 6.2 mi) above the Earth's surface,fellingan estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 km2(830 sq mi).[82]

In February 1947, another large bolide impacted the Earth in theSikhote-Alin Mountains,Primorye,Soviet Union. It was during daytime hours and was witnessed by many people, which allowedV. G. Fesenkov,then chairman of the meteorite committee of the USSR Academy of Science, to estimate the meteoroid's orbit before it encountered the Earth.Sikhote-Alinis a massive fall with the overall size of themeteoroidestimated at 90,000 kg (200,000 lb). A more recent estimate by Tsvetkov (and others) puts the mass at around 100,000 kg (220,000 lb).[83]It was an iron meteorite belonging to the chemical group IIAB and with a coarse octahedrite structure. More than 70tonnes(metric tons) of material survived the collision.

A case of a human injured by a space rock occurred on November 30, 1954, inSylacauga, Alabama.[84]There a 4 kg (8.8 lb) stone chondrite crashed through a roof and hit Ann Hodges in her living room after it bounced off her radio. She was badly bruised by thefragments.Several persons have since claimed to have been struck by "meteorites" but no verifiable meteorites have resulted.

A small number ofmeteorite fallshave been observed with automated cameras and recovered following calculation of the impact point. The first was thePříbram meteorite,which fell in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) in 1959.[85]In this case, two cameras used to photograph meteors captured images of the fireball. The images were used both to determine the location of the stones on the ground and, more significantly, to calculate for the first time an accurate orbit for a recovered meteorite.

Following the Příbram fall, other nations established automated observing programs aimed at studying infalling meteorites.[86]One of these was thePrairie Meteorite Network,operated by theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatoryfrom 1963 to 1975 in the midwestern U.S. This program also observed a meteorite fall, the "Lost City" chondrite, allowing its recovery and a calculation of its orbit.[87]Another program in Canada, the Meteorite Observation and Recovery Project, ran from 1971 to 1985. It too recovered a single meteorite, "Innisfree", in 1977.[88]Finally, observations by the European Fireball Network, a descendant of the original Czech program that recovered Příbram, led to the discovery and orbit calculations for theNeuschwansteinmeteorite in 2002.[89]

On August 10, 1972, a meteor which became known as the1972 Great Daylight Fireballwas witnessed by many people as it moved north over theRocky Mountainsfrom the U.S. Southwest to Canada. It was filmed by a tourist at theGrand Teton National ParkinWyomingwith an 8-millimeter color movie camera.[90]In size range the object was roughly between a car and a house, and while it could have ended its life in a Hiroshima-sized blast, there was never any explosion. Analysis of the trajectory indicated that it never came much lower than 58 km (36 mi) off the ground, and the conclusion was that it had grazed Earth's atmosphere for about 100 seconds, then skipped back out of the atmosphere to return to its orbit around the Sun.

Many impact events occur without being observed by anyone on the ground. Between 1975 and 1992, American missileearly warning satellitespicked up 136 major explosions in the upper atmosphere.[91]In the November 21, 2002, edition of the journalNature,Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario reported on his study of U.S. early warning satellite records for the preceding eight years. He identified 300 flashes caused by 1 to 10 m (3 to 33 ft) meteors in that time period and estimated the rate of Tunguska-sized events as once in 400 years.[92]Eugene Shoemakerestimated that an event of such magnitude occurs about once every 300 years, though more recent analyses have suggested he may have overestimated by an order of magnitude.

In the dark morning hours of January 18, 2000, afireballexploded over the city ofWhitehorse, Yukon Territoryat an altitude of about 26 km (16 mi), lighting up the night like day. The meteor that produced the fireball was estimated to be about 4.6 m (15 ft) in diameter, with a weight of 180 tonnes. This blast was also featured on the Science Channel seriesKiller Asteroids,with several witness reports from residents inAtlin, British Columbia.

21st-century impacts

[edit]
Main article:List of bolides

On 7 June 2006, a meteor was observed striking a location in theReisadalenvalley inNordreisa MunicipalityinTromsCounty, Norway. Although initial witness reports stated that the resultant fireball was equivalent tothe Hiroshima nuclear explosion,scientific analysis places the force of the blast at anywhere from 100 to 500tonnesTNT equivalent, around three percent of Hiroshima's yield.[93]

On 15 September 2007, a chondriticmeteor crashed near the village of Carancasin southeastern Peru nearLake Titicaca,leaving a water-filled hole and spewing gases across the surrounding area. Many residents became ill, apparently from the noxious gases shortly after the impact.

On 7 October 2008, an approximately 4 meter asteroid labeled2008 TC3was tracked for 20 hours as it approached Earth and as it fell through the atmosphere and impacted in Sudan. This was the first time an object was detected before it reached the atmosphere and hundreds of pieces of the meteorite were recovered from theNubian Desert.[94]

Trail left by the exploding Chelyabinsk meteor as it passed over the city.

On 15 February 2013, an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere overRussiaas afireballand exploded above the city ofChelyabinskduring its passage through theUral Mountains regionat 09:13YEKT(03:13UTC).[95][96]The object's air burst occurred at an altitude between 30 and 50 km (19 and 31 mi) above the ground,[97]and about 1,500 people were injured, mainly by broken window glass shattered by the shock wave. Two were reported in serious condition; however, there were no fatalities.[98]Initially some 3,000 buildings in six cities across the region were reported damaged due to the explosion's shock wave, a figure which rose to over 7,200 in the following weeks.[99][100]The Chelyabinsk meteor was estimated to have caused over $30 million in damage.[101][102]It is the largest recorded object to have encountered the Earth since the 1908 Tunguska event.[103][104]The meteor is estimated to have an initial diameter of 17–20 metres and a mass of roughly 10,000 tonnes. On 16 October 2013, a team from Ural Federal University led by Victor Grokhovsky recovered a large fragment of the meteor from the bottom of Russia's Lake Chebarkul, about 80 km west of the city.[105]

On 1 January 2014, a 3-meter (10 foot) asteroid,2014 AAwas discovered by theMount Lemmon Surveyand observed over the next hour, and was soon found to be on a collision course with Earth. The exact location was uncertain, constrained to a line betweenPanama,the central Atlantic Ocean,The Gambia,and Ethiopia. Around roughly the time expected (2 January 3:06 UTC) an infrasound burst was detected near the center of the impact range, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.[106][107]This marks the second time a natural object was identified prior to impacting earth after 2008 TC3.

Nearly two years later, on October 3,WT1190Fwas detected orbiting Earth on a highly eccentric orbit, taking it from well within theGeocentric satellite ringto nearly twice the orbit of the Moon. It was estimated to be perturbed by the Moon onto a collision course with Earth on November 13. With over a month of observations, as well as precovery observations found dating back to 2009, it was found to be far less dense than a natural asteroid should be, suggesting that it was most likely an unidentified artificial satellite. As predicted, it fell overSri Lankaat 6:18 UTC (11:48 local time). The sky in the region was very overcast, so only an airborne observation team was able to successfully observe it falling above the clouds. It is now thought to be a remnant of theLunar Prospectormission in 1998, and is the third time any previously unknown object – natural or artificial – was identified prior to impact.

On 22 January 2018, an object,A106fgF,was discovered by theAsteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System(ATLAS) and identified as having a small chance of impacting Earth later that day.[108]As it was very dim, and only identified hours before its approach, no more than the initial 4 observations covering a 39-minute period were made of the object. It is unknown if it impacted Earth or not, but no fireball was detected in either infrared or infrasound, so if it did, it would have been very small, and likely near the eastern end of its potential impact area – in the western Pacific Ocean.

On 2 June 2018, theMount Lemmon Surveydetected2018 LA(ZLAF9B2), a small 2–5 meter asteroid which further observations soon found had an 85% chance of impacting Earth. Soon after the impact, a fireball report fromBotswanaarrived to theAmerican Meteor Society.Further observations with ATLAS extended the observation arc from 1 hour to 4 hours and confirmed that the asteroid orbit indeed impacted Earth in southern Africa, fully closing the loop with the fireball report and making this the third natural object confirmed to impact Earth, and the second on land after2008 TC3.[109][110][111]

On 8 March 2019,NASAannounced the detection of a large airburst that occurred on 18 December 2018 at 11:48 local time off the eastern coast of theKamchatka Peninsula.TheKamchatka superbolideis estimated to have had a mass of roughly 1600 tons, and a diameter of 9 to 14 meters depending on its density, making it the third largest asteroid to impact Earth since 1900, after the Chelyabinsk meteor and the Tunguska event. The fireball exploded in an airburst 25.6 kilometres (15.9 mi) above Earth's surface.

2019 MO,an approximately 4m asteroid, was detected byATLASa few hours before it impacted the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico in June 2019.[112]

In 2023, a small meteorite is believed to have crashed through the roof of a home in Trenton, New Jersey. The metallic rock was approximately 4 inches by 6 inches and weighed 4 pounds. The item was seized by police and tested for radioactivity.[113]The object was later confirmed to be a meteorite by scientists at The College of New Jersey, as well as meteorite expert Jerry Delaney, who previously worked at Rutgers University and the American Museum of Natural History.[114]

Asteroid impact prediction
[edit]
Main article:Asteroid impact prediction
Orbitand positions of2018 LAand Earth, 30 days before impact. The diagram illustrates how orbit data can be used to predict impacts well in advance. Note that in this particular instance the asteroid's orbit was not known until a few hours before impact. The diagram was constructed afterwards for illustration.

In the late 20th and early 21st century scientists put in place measures to detectNear Earth objects,and predict the dates and times ofasteroidsimpacting Earth, along with the locations at which they will impact. TheInternational Astronomical UnionMinor Planet Center(MPC) is the global clearing house for information on asteroid orbits.NASA'sSentry Systemcontinually scans the MPC catalog of known asteroids, analyzing their orbits for any possible future impacts.[115]Currently none are predicted (the single highest probability impact currently listed is ~7 m asteroid2010 RF12,which is due to pass earth in September 2095 with only a 5% predicted chance of impacting).[116]

Currently prediction is mainly based on catalogingasteroidsyears before they are due to impact. This works well for larger asteroids (> 1kmacross) as they are easily seen from a long distance. Over 95% of them are already known and theirorbitshave been measured, so any future impacts can be predicted long before they are on their final approach to Earth. Smaller objects are too faint to observe except when they come very close and so most cannot be observed before their final approach. Current mechanisms for detecting asteroids on final approach rely on wide-field ground basedtelescopes,such as the ATLAS system. However, current telescopes only cover part of the Earth and even more importantly cannot detect asteroids on the day-side of the planet, which is why so few of the smaller asteroids that commonly impact Earth are detected during the few hours that they would be visible.[117] So far only four impact events have been successfully predicted, all from innocuous 2–5 m diameter asteroids and detected a few hours in advance.

Ground based telescopes can only detect objects approaching on the night-side of the planet, away from theSun.Roughly half of impacts occur on the day-side of the planet.

Current response status

[edit]
Main article:Asteroid impact avoidance

In April 2018, theB612 Foundationreported "It's 100 per cent certain we’ll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 per cent certain when."[7]Also in 2018,physicistStephen Hawking,in his final bookBrief Answers to the Big Questions,considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet.[8][9]In June 2018, the US National Science and Technology Council warned that America is unprepared for anasteroid impact event,and has developed and released the"National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy Action Plan"to better prepare.[10][11][12][13][14]According to expert testimony in the United States Congress in 2013,NASAwould require at least five years of preparation to launch a mission to intercept an asteroid.[15]The preferred method is to deflect rather than disrupt an asteroid.[118][119][120]

Elsewhere in the Solar System

[edit]

Evidence of massive past impact events

[edit]
Topographical map of theSouth Pole–Aitken basinbased onKaguyadata provides evidence of a massive impact event on the Moon some 4.3 billion years ago
Main article:List of largest craters in the Solar System

Impact craters provide evidence of past impacts on other planets in the Solar System, including possible interplanetary terrestrial impacts. Without carbon dating, other points of reference are used to estimate the timing of these impact events. Mars provides some significant evidence of possible interplanetary collisions. TheNorth Polar Basinon Mars is speculated by some to be evidence for a planet-sized impact on the surface of Mars between 3.8 and 3.9 billion years ago, whileUtopia Planitiais the largest confirmed impact andHellas Planitiais the largest visible crater in the Solar System. The Moon provides similar evidence of massive impacts, with theSouth Pole–Aitken basinbeing the biggest.Mercury'sCaloris Basinis another example of a crater formed by a massive impact event.RheasilviaonVestais an example of a crater formed by an impact capable of, based on ratio of impact to size, severely deforming a planetary-mass object. Impact craters on themoons of Saturnsuch as Engelier and Gerin onIapetus,Mamaldi onRheaandOdysseusonTethysandHerschelonMimasform significant surface features. Models developed in 2018 to explain the unusual spin ofUranussupport a long-held hypothesis that this was caused by an oblique collision with a massive object twice the size of Earth.[121]

Observed events

[edit]

Jupiter

[edit]
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's scar on Jupiter (dark area near Jupiter'slimb)
Main article:Impact events on Jupiter
See also:List of Jupiter events

Jupiteris the most massive planet in theSolar System,and because of its large mass it has a vast sphere of gravitational influence, the region of space where anasteroid capturecan take place under favorable conditions.[122]

Jupiter is able to capturecometsin orbit around the Sun with a certain frequency. In general, these comets travel some revolutions around the planet following unstable orbits as highly elliptical and perturbable by solar gravity. While some of them eventually recover aheliocentric orbit,others crash on the planet or, more rarely, on its satellites.[123][124]

In addition to the mass factor, its relative proximity to the inner solar system allows Jupiter to influence the distribution of minor bodies there. For a long time it was believed that these characteristics led the gas giant to expel from the system or to attract most of the wandering objects in its vicinity and, consequently, to determine a reduction in the number of potentially dangerous objects for the Earth. Subsequent dynamic studies have shown that in reality the situation is more complex: the presence of Jupiter, in fact, tends to reduce the frequency of impact on the Earth of objects coming from theOort cloud,[125]while it increases it in the case of asteroids[126]and short period comets.[127]

For this reason Jupiter is the planet of the Solar System characterized by the highest frequency of impacts, which justifies its reputation as the "sweeper" or "cosmic vacuum cleaner" of the Solar System.[128]2009 studies suggest an impact frequency of one every 50–350 years, for an object of 0.5–1 km in diameter; impacts with smaller objects would occur more frequently. Another study estimated that comets 0.3 km (0.19 mi) in diameter impact the planet once in approximately 500 years and those 1.6 km (0.99 mi) in diameter do so just once in every 6,000 years.[129]

In July 1994,Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9was a comet that broke apart and collided with Jupiter, providing the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects.[130]The event served as a "wake-up call", and astronomers responded by starting programs such asLincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research(LINEAR),Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking(NEAT),Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search(LONEOS) and several others which have drastically increased the rate of asteroid discovery.

The2009 impact eventhappened on July 19 when a new black spot about the size of Earth was discovered in Jupiter's southern hemisphere byamateur astronomerAnthony Wesley.Thermal infrared analysis showed it was warm and spectroscopic methods detected ammonia.JPLscientists confirmed that there was another impact event on Jupiter, probably involving a small undiscovered comet or other icy body.[131][132][133]The impactor is estimated to have been about 200–500 meters in diameter.

Later minor impacts were observed by amateur astronomers in 2010, 2012, 2016, and 2017; one impact was observed byJunoin 2020.

Other impacts

[edit]
See also:Impact events on Mars
Hubble'sWide Field Camera 3clearly shows the slow evolution of the debris coming from asteroidP/2010 A2,assumed to be due to a collision with a smaller asteroid.

In 1998, two comets were observed plunging toward theSunin close succession. The first of these was on June 1 and the second the next day. A video of this, followed by a dramatic ejection of solar gas (unrelated to the impacts), can be found at the NASA[134]website. Both of these comets evaporated before coming into contact with the surface of the Sun. According to a theory by NASAJet Propulsion LaboratoryscientistZdeněk Sekanina,the latest impactor to actually make contact with the Sun was the "supercomet"Howard-Koomen-Michelson August 30, 1979.[135][self-published source?](See alsosungrazer.)

In 2010, between January and May,Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3[136]took images of an unusual X shape originated in the aftermath of the collision between asteroidP/2010 A2with a smallerasteroid.

Around March 27, 2012, based on evidence, there were signs of an impact onMars.Images from theMars Reconnaissance Orbiterprovide compelling evidence of the largest impact observed to date on Mars in the form of fresh craters, the largest measuring 48.5 by 43.5 meters. It is estimated to be caused by an impactor 3 to 5 meters long.[137]

On March 19, 2013, an impact occurred on the Moon that was visible from Earth, when a boulder-sized 30 cm meteoroid slammed into the lunar surface at 90,000 km/h (25 km/s; 56,000 mph) creating a 20-meter crater.[138][139]NASA has actively monitored lunar impacts since 2005,[140]tracking hundreds of candidate events.[141][142]

On 18 September 2021 an impact event on Mars formed a cluster of craters, the largest being 130m in diameter. On 24 December 2021 an impact created a 150m-wide crater. Debris was ejected up to 35 km (19 miles) from the impact site.[143]

Extrasolar impacts

[edit]
Asteroid collision led to the building of planets near starNGC 2547-ID8 (artist concept).

Collisions between galaxies, orgalaxy mergers,have been observed directly by space telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer. However, collisions in planetary systems includingstellar collisions,while long speculated, have only recently begun to be observed directly.

In 2013, an impact between minor planets was detected around the star NGC 2547 ID 8 by Spitzer and confirmed by ground observations. Computer modelling suggests that the impact involved large asteroids orprotoplanetssimilar to the events believed to have led to the formation of terrestrial planets like the Earth.[6]

See also

[edit]

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