Impact!
In the early morning of Sunday October 6th, 2002, a flash of light was seen in the skies above the UK. Scientists believe that this was a comet or large meteor exploding in the atmosphere. But what would have happened if that lump of space rock had not exploded high in the atmosphere? What if it had made it to the surface of the Earth? Professor Lockwood Wasdale of the University of Northfield In Birmingham Department of Armageddon Studies has been looking into this incident, and his analysis is shocking - the impact of such an extra-terrestrial object would have deadly consequences not just for the area it hit, but potentially for the whole world.
In recent years, scientists have begun to appreciate just how many large lumps of rock and ice are floating around in space. Although we have known for years that from time to time small pieces cross the path of the earth, we have never really thought what would happen if one of the larger ones did. And yet, the evidence of the power of such an impact is all around us. Where it not for a huge impact millions of years ago, we humans may not even be here. The planet could still be ruled by dinosaurs. And just as the dinosaurs reign came to a fiery end at the hands of a rogue space object so could ours.
Details of the event which occured on the 6th of October of 2002 are quite sketchy. We think that a largish object exploded miles above the UK in the atmosphere. Presumably after billions of years of travelling through the solar system, this particular piece of rock or ice was too weak to actually get close enough to the surface of the planet to wreak any real havoc. But we can count ourselves lucky. For the moment. Sooner or later something will hit the earth, and something so big it will cause devastation which will redefine the word catastrophic. So let us for the moment assume that this object was both large and did not explode high in the atmosphere.
A comet is basically a dirty snowball. A block of ice and dust, formed billions of years ago when the solar system was young. In the early years, the juvenile solar system teemed with such objects, but as time has gone on, most have already impacted into one of the larger bodies. The pock marked face of the moon demonstrates this, and demonstrates also the power of a "mere dirty snowball." But many comets still wend their lonely way around the planets.
Meantime, equally dangerous, are the large blocks of rock which also float about the solar system, until they too plunge into one of the planets or their moons. As they have no tail like a comet, and because they are made of rock, they are also dark. We do not know where they are. There may be millions of them, some of them headed directly for the earth. Let us assume that the object which so nearly made it to us on October 6th was such a rock. Plunging from the blackness of space, unseen until too late. A 2 mile wide chunk of embryonic solar system falling to earth right above the UK at enormous velocity.
In the darkness of space, a huge chunk of rock heads for the Earth
The first people to spot such an object would be those in charge of the countries defences. But there is nothing they could do to stop it or warn us. The general population in the impact area would have no idea. Maybe someone would see a fireball. But it would hit before any action could be taken. Even if there was some kind of four-minute warning, escape and survival would be impossible.
The October 6th object was spotted over the English West Midlands, and so we can assume it would have impacted nearby. For the sake of our example, we shall say East Anglia. The people of Norwich, mostly asleep in their beds, would be blasted into atoms before they even had a chance to wake up. Those who saw the fireball in the West Midlands would be incinerated in a blinding flash shortly afterwards. In an explosive event millions of times more powerful than any nuclear weapon we could create, most of the eastern part of England would cease to exist in microseconds.
A blast wave of heat and debris would spread rapidly for tens, perhaps hundreds of miles, wiping out any living thing. The UK and nearby parts of Northern Europe would be instantly destroyed. Like a stone being throw into a pond, a series of great ripples, earthquakes the like of which has never been felt by mankind, would spread out around the earth, destroying all but the most solidly built structures, triggering landslides, huge tsunami and shaking volcanoes to life.
Impact! The space rock hits the UK, blasting a crater 50 miles across
The impact would throw vast amounts of incredibly hot particles many miles into the atmosphere, and these would fall all over the now earthquake ravaged planet triggering huge fire storms. To an observer from space, the whole planet would seem to be ablaze, until perhaps 24 hours after the impact when the amount of smoke and ash in the atmosphere would block any view of the surface. And indeed block out almost all sunlight from the Earth.
With no sunlight to speak of, the planet would slip into a great iceage. Snow, blackened by ash and soot would fall, carpeting the planet in thick layers of ice for perhaps years. All live would struggle to survive. Darkness would prevent the proper growth of plants, and food would be rare. Only the hardiest of scavengers could hope to survive. Mankind, if it still existed, would be thrown back to it's most primative stage, and even then perhaps would not make it through the bleak impact winter.
It may even be that when the spring finally came life on Earth as we know it would have ceased totally.