Comet dust travels through our atmosphere in a great show, but Earth's collision with one of these comets can lead to disastrous consequences.
This is not a cause for concern, of course, because NASA is observing any cosmic objects in a path parallel to our planet, and they have concluded through this observation that there are very low chances of us colliding with any asteroid or comet in the short term.
Yet it is intriguing to think what would happen if one of these ancient celestial fragments of ice, dust, or rocks collided with our planet?
Take Comet Swift-Tuttle as an example (a remnant of Comet Persaid metre). This 16-mile-wide comet is a splinter that flies through space at 36 miles per second, more than 150 times the speed of sound.
If a comet of this size hits Earth, the collision energy would be about 300 times the energy of the asteroid impact that scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs, Donald Yeomans, chief researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told LiveScience.
The size of a comet or asteroid is not the only thing to consider in cosmic collisions, while a direct collision would be extremely devastating, the greatest danger comes from the gases released into the Earth's atmosphere following the collision.
“Sulfur dioxide makes the atmosphere very cold initially and then carbon dioxide causes long-term warming,” LiveScience wrote. the whole world".
However, the impact of a comet on Earth does not necessarily mean a total extinction and the end of human civilization.
The fall of comets in the ocean can lead to earthquakes and tsunamis, but the oceans will mitigate their atmospheric effects (gas emissions). Given that 70% of the Earth is covered in oceans our predictions aren't high, but let's hope we don't have to calculate probabilities any time soon.