Advexon Science Network's video: Impact Event: Comet Crashing Into Earth - Full Documentary HD

Comet Crashing Into Earth - Full Documentary HD With the Delta Aquarid meteor shower going on right now, and the crowd-favorite Perseid meteor shower hot on its heels, the next few weeks are going to be the prime-time to watch some shooting stars light up the night sky. But while dust-size bits of comets sizzling through our atmosphere put on a pretty awesome show, the consequences of Earth confronting one of these comets head-on could actually be pretty disastrous. It's not something that you should be worried about, of course. NASA is on the lookout for any cosmic objects on a crash course with our planet, and it's found that the chances of us colliding with a comet or asteroid anytime soon are pretty low. It's still interesting to think about, though. What would happen if one of these ancient, celestial chunks of ice, dust, and rock smacked into our planet? The 16-mile-wide Swift-Tuttle comet — the progenitor of the Perseid meteor shower —hurtles through space at about 36 miles per second, more than 150 times the speed of sound. If a comet of this size struck Earth, then the energy of the impact would be about as much as 300 times that of the asteroid that scientists believed wiped out the dinosaurs, Donald Yeomans, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told LiveScience. And the size of a comet or asteroid isn't the only thing to consider with cosmic collisions. While the impact of the comet would be pretty destructive, the brunt of the damage would come from the gases it released in Earth's atmosphere. "Sulfur dioxide would initially cause cooling, and then carbon dioxide would lead to long-term warming," LiveScience writes. "An event like this would likely cause the planet's climate to change drastically, leading to mass extinctions around the globe." A comet colliding with Earth wouldn’t necessarily signal mass extinctions and the end of human civilization, though. While a comet landing smack dab in the ocean could trigger earthquakes and tsunamis, its atmospheric effects would actually be eased by the ocean. Considering that 70% of Earth is covered in ocean, our odds aren't terrible. But let's hope that we don't have to roll the dice anytime soon.