• Question: Has a comet or anything from space similar to a comet ever hit earth

    Asked by 962spce38 to Laurence on 7 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 7 Mar 2016:


      Interesting question and difficult to answer but I’ll try. So comets are pretty much large blocks of ice and dirt mixed together. If you heat up ice it melts so you would imagine that if it comes flying through the earths atmosphere it’ll burn up and nothing will be left. However a lot of the shooting stars you see are comet dust which burn up in the atmosphere. I know of impact craters around the earth created by rocks (asteroids – meteorites) but comets very few. In summary, I would say it’s more likely to be a rock (asteroid) than ice (comet) but it is possible. The evidence that one has landed doesn’t last long though

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