A video illustrating what happened to the dinosaurs when the asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, also shows how it would pan out for humans if the event took place today.
The video posted on YouTube by Melodysheep explains the terrifying fate faced by the dinosaurs when the asteroid hit what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
For over 20 minutes after the impact, the whole Earth became hotter than “a boiling oven” and molten debris rained down. Earthquakes then triggered volcanic eruptions around the world.
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The ‘final blow’ to the dinosaurs came when giant clouds of dust covered the Earth, starving it of sunlight for up to 15 years and as a result, 75% of all species went extinct.
There were a lucky few however, including crocodiles, who can go months with food, and birds used their beaks to feed on ‘hardy food sources’ like seeds.
So how would we cope if an asteroid of the same size hit the same spot today? The video lets us find out.
The first thing to happen is that Central America and the southern US would be vaporized from the blast, with a hundred million people killed within seconds.
Minutes later, earthquakes would erupt across the world and giant tsunamis would hit the coasts, drowning around three billion people.
Debris would kill millions of people across the US, and for anyone far enough away, their best chance of survival would be to get underground before the molten rain starts.
Underground cities in places like Nushabad, Iran, and Derinkuyu, Turkey, could protect millions from the acid rain that would fall for years to come.
Stocked government bunkers could also provide shelter but after five years, food would be depleted and fresh water would be contained, and only half a million humans would be left on Earth.
But the video goes on to offer some hope for humanity, saying that there’s a chance the survivors could adapt, harvesting fungi to eat and cultivating makeshift agriculture.
There is also the possibility that if we know the asteroid is coming, we can prepare for it.
In 2022, NASA deliberately smashed their DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) into an asteroid 6.8 million miles away from Earth, changing the course of its orbit.
In effect of this meant that the asteroid’s motion in space was altered and its orbital period was shortened by 32 minutes and 42 seconds.
This demonstrated NASA’s ability to protect us from a potential asteroid heading for collision.
In a real life event where an asteroid could be beelining for Earth, it’s likely that scientists would be able to steer onto a different, safer course.