Earth Go Boom!

Most everyone has seen video and movies depicting the destruction of Earth by asteroids. Deep Impact, and Armageddon were two very famous movies produced on this subject. Doomsayers have been predicting an asteroid strike for years.  It’s happened in the past and it one day it will happen again.

I for one wasn’t convinced that a large asteroid would create enough energy to destroy our planet until the impact event of the Shoemaker Levy 9 comet on Jupiter back in 1994. Still though people don’t get the power of such an event unless they can see some sort of comparison. So, to give you an idea of scale, and the massiveness of an explosion sufficient to extinguish all life on Earth I will use the impact of the Shoemaker Levy 9 comet to illustrate the sheer power of a single comets impact. Keep in mind this comet broke apart into many pieces and just one impact from one of those larger pieces could wipe out life on this planet if not destroy Earth altogether.

As you can see the comet has broken apart in the photo below. This was caused by the intense gravitational pull of Jupiter.

Shoemaker Levy 9 On Approach To Jupiter

Take a look at this next photo. Here’s some perspective for you.

Earth's Size in Comparison to Jupiter

Now look at this photo of the actual impacts of the Shoemaker Levy 9 comet with the planet Jupiter. It doesn’t take much thought to realize what would happen to us if that comet had struck Earth instead.

Size Of Earth Impact Comparison

That’s rather amazing don’t you think?