How dangerous could an asteroid hitting Earth be? The terrible damage that a 1500 foot asteroid can do is detailed here.
With thousands of asteroids floating around our planet, the issue is when, not whether an asteroid will strike. Fortunately, anyone living on this planet at the moment has never witnessed an actual collision with an asteroid when the size of the space rock is larger than a few meters. The closest we came to was the Chelyabinsk incident where the incoming asteroid exploded in the sky and still injured thousands of people from the shockwave. Just a few weeks ago, another hit the Earth, but only small remnants landed. So, what if a 1500-foot asteroid hits Earth tomorrow. Take New York, for example, a crowded megacity. How terrible will the damage be? How many people will be killed?
To answer the above question, complex scientific models and analyzes are required. But thanks asteroid launcher, designed by programmer Neil Agarwal, the answer to the question can be found in seconds. Interactive maps are part of many educational apps that help you do everything from solving a trolley problem to designing your next iPhone.
Interactive map showing the destruction an asteroid strike can cause
To answer the question posed earlier, a 1500-foot-wide iron asteroid hitting Earth at 150000 miles per hour at a 45-degree angle could cause severe damage. Assuming that the asteroid hits New York, this is what will happen.
The asteroid will immediately create a crater 11 miles wide and 2,292 feet deep. Just the impact would vaporize 2183697 people instantly. Yes, more than 2 million people will be killed instantly. The energy released from the collision would be as strong as 141 gigatons of TNT. But that’s not all. The collision will also create a 21-mile wide fireball that will claim the lives of 11502066 others. Trees will catch fire within 179 miles of impact. Then there will be a shock wave and a 7.9 magnitude earthquake that will cause even more devastation.
It is easy to see that destruction will be unlike anything our minds can imagine. Agarwal created this app using Apple Maps. He added various customization options from which you can control the asteroid’s composition, speed, impact angle, and impact location.
“I like to come up with disaster scenarios in my head and so I’ve always wanted a tool to help visualize the impact of some major natural disaster. Asteroids are a good choice because their effects are far-reaching. I think this tool can also help people appreciate the need to deflect our asteroids like in NASA’s DART mission,” Agarwal said. told Evil behavior.
