A new video by YouTube channel MetaBallStudios shows a size comparison of asteroids in our solar system relative to New York City. The video is cool and terrifying at the same time. The smallest asteroid would damage a large portion of New York City due to its explosive force. The second largest asteroid would obliterate the city.
The “small” asteroid that hit Russia in 2013 created an explosion roughly 30 times more powerful than the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima. The Chelyabinsk meteor was approximately 20 meters in size, which is only 2 meters smaller than the second largest asteroid in the video (2014 RC).
And those are the small asteroids. The 3-D animated video continues to pull out wider and wider to reveal more than 20 known asteroids. From the smallest (2008 TC3) at 4.1 meters all the way up to the largest (1 Ceres) coming in at 939 kilometers. Yes, kilometers.
The asteroid (or comet) that likely killed off the dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous period by causing the mass extinction of roughly 75% of all life on earth, was somewhere between 11 to 81 kilometers. That’s about the size of the ninth asteroid (433 Eros) in the video. The Chicxulub crater where the asteroid impacted is estimated to be 150 kilometers in diameter and 20 kilometers deep.
EVEN MORE ASTEROIDS
A recent close flyby of a large asteroid occurred in October 2019. Asteroid HL 1 (550 meters) was 6.21 million kilometers away from earth. That may seem like it’s maintaining a safe distance. However, NASA classifies asteroids that come within 7.8 million kilometers of Earth as “potentially hazardous asteroids.”
About 175 asteroid impacts have been located around the globe. The Vredefort crater in South Africa is the largest known impact site on Earth. The asteroid left a crater more than 300 kilometers in diameter.
If any of the asteroids shown in the video get anywhere near Earth, someone better get Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck ready for lift off.
METABALLSTUDIOS
Circling back to MetaBallStudios, you’ve probably seen some of their other videos like the starships size comparison (below), the Star Wars size comparison, or even the super cute Pokémon size comparison. You can learn more about MetaBallStudios on their Facebook page.
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