Questions tagged [asteroids]

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3 votes
0 answers
23 views

If superheavy elements existed in the solar system, why wouldn't we find them on earth?

There is a story going around in the popular science press at the moment on that there are asteroids in the solar system that have a higher density than any known normal (atomic) material, and that ...
JanKanis's user avatar
  • 131
2 votes
0 answers
22 views

If the asteroid that wiped out most of the dinosaurs had impacted much closer to the poles, would the extinction event have be smaller?

The case is that, if it landed at the North Pole or the South Pole, the global after-impact effects such as gases and dust spreading through the atmosphere, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanism and ...
user27826's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
671 views

Is there any research on the relation of asteroid impacts and hot-spots?

In a new video by Atlas Pro on Hawaii linked below, he indicates a curious observation: Most hotspots antipode’s have sign’s of heavy impacts from asteroids. He postulated that the force of these ...
C-Consciousness's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
14k views

If the Bennu asteroid were to hit within a 500 mile radius of Yellowstone National Park, will it trigger a super volcano at Yellowstone?

I am curious to know if it would be highly probable that if the Bennu asteroid were to hit the Earth in 2182, and the point of impact is within a 500 mile radius of Yellowstone National Park, will it ...
user57467's user avatar
  • 411
7 votes
2 answers
335 views

Would a gold-containing meteor cause it to "rain" gold?

Not sure if here or physics is the best place for this question, but if there was a meteor that had gold in it, what happens to that metal during entry of the Earth's atmosphere? Since gold melts at ...
user avatar
10 votes
8 answers
4k views

Could an icy/extremely-cold asteroid/comet ever strike and cool the Earth?

This is obviously an imaginary question, but it seems like something computable (which I don't have the mathematical ability to do so unfortunately). P.S. I do not have in-depth knowledge about comet/...
y chung's user avatar
  • 704
4 votes
1 answer
190 views

Luis Alvarez's K-T Impactor Calculation

I am trying to perform the calculation that Luis Alvarez used to establish the size of the K-T impactor. I used the following information: Assume that the clay layer with iridium was uniformly ...
jorkz's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
1 answer
362 views

How deep could the Vredefort asteroid have penetrated? [duplicate]

The asteroid which created the Vredefort impact crater in South Africa is estimated to have been between 10 and 16 km in diameter (the uncertainty is due to the age of the crater, which is more than 2 ...
Michael Walsby's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
230 views

Original Diameter of Ancient Impact Craters [closed]

The 2.25 billion-year-old Yarrabubba crater in Western Australia has recently been identified as the world's oldest impact crater. It is said to be 43 miles (69 km) in diameter, yet the photo which ...
Michael Walsby's user avatar