# not-so-deep impact **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 26, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637 "2000-05-26T20:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/1 "2000-05-26T20:56:52Z")
Okay. What are the chnaces of the earth surviving if a small asteroid hit it? If it hit the ocean compared to a desert area? If it hit on an angle instead of dead on? How small could it be to avoid too much damage? What if it hit Wally and he wrote a funny thread about it? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/2 "2000-05-26T21:57:36Z")
Here’s a rather lenghty, but easy reading, article I found on the [NASA](http://neo.arc.nasa.gov/congress/1998_may/chapman.html) website. It covers some of your questions. I’m not sure about Wally though. Of course, none of us are sure about Wally. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/3 "2000-05-26T23:30:43Z")
The chances of _the Earth_ surviving are quite good. Thank you for your concern. Even the so-called ‘planet killers’ are like Oxy-5 to the earth, cleaning and drying its skin, and killing off some of those nasty things that infest it. A truly large object, large than any asteroid, might shatter the Earth, but it would still be likely to re-accrete over the next billion years or so. Few people appreciate how immense the GBP (gravitational binding potential) of a planet is. If you took the complete solar output and funneled it into a laser, it would not equal the GBP – in other words, most of the pieces would come back together. [This is a mathematical fact] The asteroid belt persists because the asteroids are in stable orbits, not only relative to the sun, but relative to the periodic perturbation of Mars and Jupiter. They would reaccrete, _except_ the complex influence of a nearby almost star-sized planet is far gearter that the effect of the distant sun. Actually, you’ve given me an interesting math problem for the evening: what is the GBP of the asteroid belt in its current configuration, vs. its GBP as a coalesced planet, after specifically considering the gravity of Jupiter. I don’t believe that’s been calculated… but I think it can be approximated. [toddles off for the evening] ---
**Author:** ![WallyM7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5e925/32.png) [@WallyM7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WallyM7)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/4 "2000-05-27T01:07:58Z")
If we could fix it so the asteroid only killed rap singers and primitive species such as gerbils and Congressmen, we’d be okay. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/5 "2000-05-27T01:35:41Z")
Funny you should bring this up now. I’m literally in the middle of a book on just this topic. It’s Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets by Duncan Steel, a researcher from ustralia. His book is an excellent introduction to the topic (it has an intro by Arthur C. Clarke!) , but it does go off on a few tangents and at least skirts the Deep End. For a balanced view you might want to read he reviews at ks.space.swri.edu/clark/rogue.html and at [http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/asteroid.html](http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/asteroid.html) . The latter lists several other books on the topic, and rates them. The outlook: depending on the size of the object, not good. Even a small object hitting the ocean can start a good-sized tsunami. The bright side s that the odds ae low. The down side (the controversial part) is that Steel and other like-minded asronomers believe the odds are not as long as they are generally believed to be. Good reading to keep you up nights. ---
**Author:** ![Jo3sh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@Jo3sh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jo3sh)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/6 "2000-05-27T06:57:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > If we could fix it so the asteroid only killed rap singers and primitive species such as gerbils and Congressmen, we’d be okay. > \*\* Wally? Are you keeping a list? I have a few names I’d like to add. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2000, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-so-deep-impact/20637/7 "2000-05-27T16:41:48Z")
The (purported) meteor that flattened many, many square miles in Tunguska, Siberia, in 1908 was estimated to have been 500-600 feet across. The (purported) Chicxulub(sp?) meteroite that possibly blasted into the Yucatan peninsula 65M years ago, causing global catastrophic changes was estimated to have been 5-6 miles across. The (purported) “object” that smacked the earth so hard that the earth actually separated into two bodies (one, ultimately forming the moon) was estimated to have been about the size of Mars (couple thousand miles across). So. . . As others have said, yeah, Earth would survive, but I don’t know how many would be around to know it. A little rock moving at high speeds does a lot of damage. And to KP–the asteroid belt has a very small mass. IIRC, the entire asteroid belt, if coalesced into one body, would be much smaller than Pluto.