How could an asteroid that is only 8 miles wide wipe out all life on Earth?

Question

Also, do stars orbit the sun or do they stay still?

Answer 1

An 8-mile wide asteroid will blow out a crater at least 200 miles wide, and the thermal pulse and blast effects would be enough to destroy all life on an entire continent. It would be even worse if it struck the ocean, not only would a huge crater be blasted out, mega-tsunamis even scientists can't imagine would annihilate coastlines along an entire ocean basis. There would be incredibly destructive and deadly earthquakes that would flatten everything. They could be greater than magnitude 9 or 10 on the Richter scale, but for you to feel shaking of that intensity, you would also be where the shock waves and thermal pulses would either disintegrate or incinerate you where you stand. But that's just the prelude. The blast would melt and vaporize both the asteroid and thousands of cubic miles of the Earth's crust and hurl it into space before it falls back to Earth. Some of this white hot material would burn up up re-entry but much would get into the lower atmosphere, where it would heat the air up to 1,000 degrees or more, killing anything not underground in a shelter. Secondary impacts from ejecta would set fires everywhere, and firestorms would rage across the planet, burning everything and adding even more smoke and dust to an already dust choked atmosphere. This smoke and pulverized rock would cut out sunlight, and together with the intense acid rain that would follow the impact, much of the life that survived the blast, earth tremors, mega-tsunamis and the firestorms would perish. Then a nuclear winter would follow, and the planet will go from an inferno into a frozen hell.

As for stars orbiting the Sun, no such star is known to exist but it is possible for one to pass near us. The Sun is like any other normal star in the Milky Way, but it's a single star. Stars are like any other object, they must move fast enough to stay in orbit around another star, otherwise they will fall into the larger star and coalesce into it.

Answer 2

Ok, envision your 8 mile wide asteroid of, let's say it's a solid nickel & iron astroid, is travelling at 52,000 miles per hour (mph). upon contacting our atmosphere, it would create a massive thunder clap (like when a plane breaks the sound barier). While the atmospheric resistance would slow down your asteroid, to say around 32,000 mph, it would still have a lot of kentic force behind it. So imagine a now 7 mile asteroid (factoring in the material burned off during entry into the atmosphere) going from 32,000 mph to 0. That's a tremendus release of kenitic energy. Greater than if every nuclear weapon on Earth were detinated simultanously.

The shockwave of the impact wouls be a 12 on the Reichter Scale, & encircle the Earth several times leveling cities across the globe & creating tsunamis 3 miles high. higher than they showed in the movie Deep impact. (Yes this is sientificly possible.)

Then there's the amount of debri throwen into the air. After creating a creater approximately 200 miles in diameter, 5 miles deep, & vaporizing everyting for approx. 3,500 miles. A shower of molten rock would rain down over the side of the planet that the impact occured, causing the ultimate firestorm, & every living thing on this half pf the planet would die. The soot from the fires & other particulate matter would create a cloud of debris that would block out the sun for about 10 years. This in turn would cause a new ice age. The people on the other side, away from the impact would slowly starve & freeze to death.

Not to mention such an impact would knock the Earth off it's axis by a few degrees causing additiinally violent enviromental & climatic changes.

I hope this answered your question.

Answer 3

Two VERY different questions there. Trying to save the -5 point for asking another question?

Anyway

An 8 mile asteroid could not wipe out all life on Earth. But it could cause enough disruption of the atmosphere to mess up the weather badly enough and for long enough to cause world wide crop failures and mass starvation. Some life would survive, but human civilization would be doomed.

Stars other that the Sun orbit the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The Sun is just a normal star, seen REALLY close up, and it is orbiting the center of the Milky Way galaxy too.

Answer 4

That's a big enough asteroid that it would not fully burn on entry. It would kick up an enormous amount of dirt, sending it high into the atmosphere, where wind currents will have it shrouding the whole planet in a matter of weeks. No sunlight = no plant growth = end of all life on Earth.

Our sun is a star. Most stars do not orbit other stars, although there are a few binary stars that do, IIRC.

Answer 5

Mostly from the amount of energy released on impact & what effects that release of energy has on the biosphere. One of the biggest effects is kicking up massive clouds of dust & water vapor which blocks sunlight for months/years. This in turn causes the food chain to collapse. Other effects include a shock wave, followed by a wave of intense heat (if hot enough it could cause the atmosphere to burn)
Note not ALL life is wiped out, but 99.9% of life, which usually includes all large species & most of the higher ordered species.
No, Stars do NOT orbit the sun. The planets of our system (including the asteriod belt the Kuyper Belt & the cometary halo orbit our sun. The stars orbit their galactic centers.

Answer 6

Firstly an 8 mile wide asteroid is very big. Also it is traveleing VERY fast(maybe 20m/s). According to the defininition of kinetic energy, E = mass*speed^2, so an asteroid this big hitting the earth at this speed whould be the eqivilent of many thermonuclear warheads being detonated simultaneously at the same location. This would be a very big explosion.
It would also throw up a big dust cloud which could block out the light ffrom the sun.

Answer 7

It would take more than an 8 mile wide asteroid to wipe out all life on Earth. Perhaps a 180 mile one could do it, it if was moving fast enough. It could do it by blasting hot rock for 1000's of miles, and sending giant shock waves around the world to set everything on fire.
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As for stars, they do not orbit our sun. They are billions and billions of miles away from us, and the gravity of our sun is too weak by the time it gets that far.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

i'm keen to settle for that an insignificant 3 mile huge asteroid led to sufficient secondary havoc to have destroyed 60% of existence in the worldwide. lower back while Mt St Helens erupted we had crimson sunsets for a protracted time simply by dirt projected into the ambience. we would extra effective wish we don't get any 3-milers now; and there are numerous larger ones cruising around obtainable. playstation -- no longer something says it has to come again at once down. it ought to skid in tangentially for the time of, say, the Atlantic Ocean; and bring a bow wave that should inundate Pennsylvania. this might circulate away an empty trough in the back of it, which the relax ocean water might look for to fill, inflicting tsunamis from Iceland to Tristan da Cunha. simply by fact plenty water became into pitched for the time of New Jersey onto Pennsylvania, sea point may well be decreased. The Pacific and Indian Oceans might of direction sympathize and deliver water around the continents to make up for the loss. This super Slosh might reason something of a backlash in those oceans besides.

Answer 10

Eight Miles Wide