About 4.6 billion years ago, Earth was formed by repeated asteroid collisions. An animation by the Discovery Channel shows what such a collision might have looked like.
The 3D animation shows an asteroid 500 kilometers in diameter approaching Earth and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. As a result, a 10-kilometer-thick crust peels off the earth’s surface and a blast wave spreads at supersonic speeds. Debris is thrown into the atmosphere and lands back on Earth’s surface, wreaking havoc.
A fire spreads at breakneck speed, consuming everything and everyone that stands in its way. What remains is rubble, ash and destruction. The earth would be uninhabitable within a day.
According to the Discovery Channel, there is evidence that such an asteroid collision has occurred at least six times in Earth’s history. The animation is part of the six-part documentary series “Miracle Planet”.
The series uses footage from around the world, interviews with leading scientists, and computer animations to depict the cataclysmic events that shaped the planet and all life forms upon it.
The first episode of the series, “The Violent Past” deals with the beginnings of the Earth’s history, from Formation to the Middle Precambrian. This frame shows the animated collision of an asteroid with the earth. The other episodes are sometimes devoted to the emergence and extinction of living beings, the Ice Age and the development from primates to modern humans.
