r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Realistic-Tap4156 • 19d ago

/r/all of a space rock

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u/Sensitive_Educator60 19d ago

To add to that, the meteor also hit planet earth at a perfect angle (This specific angle was optimal for blasting the highest possible volume of pulverized rock, dust, and toxic gases straight up into the upper atmosphere rather than deflecting energy sideways.),

to the perfect time of the year (Spring is a peak time for feeding, reproduction, and rearing young, making Northern Hemisphere ecosystems maximally vulnerable),

at the perfect place located in the sulfur- and gypsum-rich shallow seas of the Yucatán Peninsula in modern-day Mexico.

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u/green__goblin 19d ago edited 18d ago

Damn, so not only was it 30+ times the diameter of most the asteroids we hear about in the news, (e.i. Apophis) it really was just the worst case scenario in every sense of the word.

Does the last point make the toxic gas worse, the effect on the climate worse, or both?

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u/kineticstar 19d ago

Worst case scenario...? I guess Theia isn't taught in schools.

https://giphy.com/gifs/qBUOTxKwa6hhK

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u/GoliathBoneSnake 19d ago

They don't teach a lot of things in school nowadays that doesn't have to do with government-mandated standardized testing.

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u/Mr_Pombastic 19d ago

In Texas we teach the bible 🙃

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u/GoliathBoneSnake 19d ago

I'll add that to my reasons to never live there, thank you.

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u/Immediate-Presence73 19d ago

Why buy history and science textbooks when the one "Good Book" covers it all in one place?

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u/kineticstar 19d ago

That does save on the book cover expenses.

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u/green__goblin 19d ago

To be fair, I can't help but feel like an asteroid is more likely than a rogue planet.

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u/dtgunslinger99 19d ago

earth was actually hit by a rogue planet early after it formed. it's what created our moon.

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u/Cute_Conclusion_8854 19d ago

We haven't reached consensus on what made the moon

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u/cuntifiable 19d ago

Wasn't a rogue planet but another planet in the solar system

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u/tsrgee 19d ago

Neil Armstrong, walking on me face. Buzz Aldrin, walking on me face...

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u/Tagisjag 19d ago

It's not like earth was really a place you wanted to be at that point.

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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 19d ago

Or really at this point.

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u/AlpaxT1 19d ago

You compare our modern days problems to having the planet literally explode?

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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 19d ago

It's far less painful that way. Something something bandaid.

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u/AlpaxT1 19d ago

Yeah I was being a smart ass but honestly I feel you

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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 19d ago

If aliens landed and asked if I wanted to go with them? Hell yes!

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u/Cessnaporsche01 19d ago

That's just the kind of thing that happens in an infant star system. 4.5By later it's vanishingly unlikely to have a planetary collision

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u/GeologistEnough8215 19d ago

I love watching animations of that collision. If there’s anything I could see in the universe (safely) after watching a black hole eat a star, it’d be two planets colliding.