They are tiny compared to the earth. I can hardly imagine they even wipe out lives within 1000km radiused area, which still is a tiny compared to the earths surface size. Asteroids are, just giant rocks right? not atomic bombs, wich gives an increasing explosion due to it’s chain reaction. So why?
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They are giant rocks, which means they are very heavy. They are also very fast, moving at speeds in the region of 20 kilometers *per second*. Kinetic energy is (mass x velocity²)/2, so we’re talking a lot of energy here.
Even a small asteroid, the size of a boulder, would have the impact energy of an atomic bomb. A 1km asteroid would be around 1.4 billion tonnes, and release more energy than if every nuke on Earth were detonated at once.
https://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/asteroid-impact.html
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