What would happen if......?

Question

an astroid hits the earth about 30% smaller than the earth it self?
And how can i show it without looking to fake?

Science Fair project

Answer 1

Well if an astroid that big hits the earth then probably the heat of the impact would melt the earth on one side and the two objects would merge together. (Possibly the entire earth crust would melt and become a fireball.)

Because of the impact earth would also be thrown from its orbit and either crash into the sun or be thrown into space.

Anyhow all live on earth would be destroyed.
(I've seen a documentary about this happening in the past and only some bacteria survived because they were hundreds of kilometres under the surface of the planet, in a salt lake if i remembered correctly)

Answer 2

Did you mean the asteroid is 30% the size of the earth (about 1/3 earth size) or that it is 70% the size of the earth (30% smaller or about 3/4 the size of the earth)? In either case, an asteroid that large would have it's own gravitational field which would react with earths gravitational field as it came nearer and nearer to the earth. At some point (depending on its size and how fast it was moving) the tidal forces of both bodies acting on the asteroid would cause it to explode before it hit the earth. It would then become a ring around earth (like Saturn's rings) and we'd have a spectacular sky.

Answer 3

There are no asteroids that large.

But assuming there are, if one collided with Earth head on, both would be reduced to a molten glob of gloop.

Answer 4

the Earth would probably explode