[QUOTE=Chronos]
The dinosaurs weren’t killed by being bonked on the head by the big rock, they were killed by lack of food, from the cold temperatures that prevailed for a few years after the impact.
[/QUOTE]
“Fine” is probably something of an exaggeration. There’s more to it than just a lack of food and a “blast winter.” One of the major killers, aside from the massive fireball and superheated shock wave that basically leveled everything for a thousand miles, was believed to be the fallback of huge amounts of ejecta, which heated the upper atmosphere like a giant broiler with the expected result, including massive firestorms worldwide. If that’s “fine” then count me out.
OK, how long would we have from it reaching our outer atmosphere, and it contacting the ground? Seconds? What sort of effects on the atmosphere could we expect to see, before lights out?
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
No such impact is possible. The amount of energy it would take to do that exceeds both the structural and thermal capacity of the materials which compose the planet: Earth would be shattered into a bazillion molten pieces and a fair amount of vapor.
[/QUOTE]
But most of it would recoalesce pretty quickly, even the vapor. Most of the atmosphere would probably be blown away, though. And the hydrosphere, too. You’d end up with a nice smooth sphere of molten metal and rock.
Upthread someone suggested that Superman could do it. Sorry, no go. Superman trying to move the Earth would be like moving a large blob of Jell-O with the point of an icepick. All you do is make holes in the gellatin/Earth. Yeah, I know he’s done it in the comic books, but you can’t believe everything you read in comic books. They make stuff up, you know…