The dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. I believe many friends know that the cause of this mass extinction was caused by an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers hitting the earth.
Back in time 65 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of about 10 kilometers bypassed numerous obstacles and hit the earth. The impact point was located in the Chicxulub region of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The energy shock was instantaneous. Equivalent to 1 million tons of energy.
The shock wave caused by the huge impact swept across North and South America, turning into a sea of fire within thousands of kilometers, triggering tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and continuous earthquakes. A series of chain reactions plunged the earth into a long “nuclear winter”, a large amount of dust entered the atmospheric circulation, blocking the sun’s light, and continued to sink until a few years later.
The real horror of the impact of asteroids on the earth is the series of ecological disasters caused by these impact shock waves. These disasters are a huge test for the survival of life. The larger the animal, the more difficult it is to survive, so in the end the dinosaurs became extinct. , Only mammals survived due to their lower requirements on the environment.
The extinction of dinosaurs also brought mammals onto the stage of history, step by step development and growth, and finally became the overlord of the earth, until the birth of mankind millions of years ago. It can be said that without the occurrence of an asteroid hitting the earth 65 million years ago, there would be no subsequent rise of mammals. Without the rise of mammals, humans would not be born. After all, humans are essentially mammals.
Through this understanding, we have seen the terrible consequences of an asteroid hitting the earth. It cannot destroy the earth but can easily exterminate most living things. And this is just an asteroid with a diameter of about 10 kilometers. What if an asteroid with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers or even thousands of kilometers hits the earth?
Some friends may say that the earth is very lucky, there will not be such a big asteroid hitting the earth, but in fact, according to the research and exploration of the earth’s history by scientists, it was discovered that in the early days of the earth, asteroids over a hundred kilometers hit the earth. It has also happened, and there are still traces of these impacts on the surface of the earth.
Some friends may think that the Earth has not had a large asteroid impact for billions of years, and we don’t need to worry about these. If you think so, you are quite wrong. In fact, 27 years ago, on July 17, 1994, without the protection of Jupiter, mankind might have withdrawn from the stage of history. What happened?
I believe friends who are interested in astronomical exploration should know about the big event that a comet hit Jupiter 27 years ago. It was a comet with a diameter of one kilometer hitting Jupiter. The moment of the impact, an energy equivalent to 40 trillion tons of TNT was generated. , Is 2 billion times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
The comet that hit Jupiter was called Shoemaker-Leve 9. When it was close to Jupiter, it was pulled by Jupiter’s gravitational pull and split into 21 stars and crashed into Jupiter’s southern hemisphere for more than 130 hours. This meteor shower-like impact is very scary. If there is civilization on Jupiter, it is estimated that you will be frightened. Such an energy impact can easily end a life planet.
Of course, Jupiter is not an ordinary planet. It is extremely large, with a mass 2.5 times the total mass of other planets, not to mention a gas giant planet. Therefore, the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 is nothing to Jupiter, it just tickles it. After the impact, a temporarily huge dark spot was left on the surface of Jupiter, an area larger than the Earth.
Twenty-seven years ago, humans witnessed planet-level impact events as bystanders. The energy waves generated at the moment of the comet impact were observed by our astronomical telescopes. People who saw this scene were not excited, but rather a kind of The collective silence, this silence is a kind of fear and a kind of rejoicing.
We have to be grateful that the earth has the protection of Jupiter and avoid a possible ultimate disaster. Just imagine, if there is no protection from Jupiter in front, would this comet hit the earth directly? Someone might say that Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 comes from the asteroid belt, and its orbit does not intersect the Earth, so even if it bypasses Jupiter, it will not crash into the Earth.
So is this really the case? Perhaps not necessarily. One important reason why the orbit of Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 will not intersect the Earth is because of the pull of Jupiter, a large planet. With the influence of Jupiter’s gravity, Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 avoided the intersection with the earth’s orbit and avoided collision with the earth.
This is the result of Jupiter’s extremely high mass. If Jupiter is not a gas giant, but a terrestrial planet similar to the Earth, then its gravitational force can also exert an influence on Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 Is there an obvious pulling effect? Perhaps not necessarily, even if it can have a certain gravitational influence, this influence is far from being compared with a huge gas giant planet.
Under this circumstance, the orbit of Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 may deviate greatly, thereby causing an intersection with the earth’s orbit. If Comet Shoemaker-Leve 9 breaks out of the asteroid belt, it will actually hit the earth if it is not possible. Asteroids of thousands of kilometers will hit the earth. Naturally, it will not be able to destroy the earth, but it can end life on the earth. era.
At that time, all life on the surface of the earth was basically impossible to survive, and only the simple life under the ground might be able to survive. Before mankind became an interstellar civilization, facing this level of asteroid impact, we had no solution at all. We could not use any existing weapons to prevent its impact, nor could we take the seeds of human civilization away from the earth, waiting. All we have is to end this road.
Of course, after human beings withdraw from the stage of history, the ecological environment of the earth will recover again after a long period of time, and new life will appear. After continuous evolution and evolution, new intelligent life will be born and evolved, forming a new earth civilization. And mankind will become a prehistoric civilization in the new civilization era. Perhaps the new civilization will find traces of human existence through some clues.
Human beings will become prehistoric civilizations because of some huge disasters. Then in the 4.6 billion years of the earth’s history, will there have been other intelligent civilizations that have withdrawn from the stage of history due to some devastating disasters? The exploration and research of prehistoric civilization has always been the answer that scientists want to know. Unfortunately, so far, we have not found traces related to prehistoric civilization. They may have existed, but the years have completely wiped out the traces of their existence.