Discovery Channel - Large Asteroid Impact Simulation
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters link it to convey the scale of asteroid impacts, such as the one that killed the dinosaurs, or of ejecta and tsunamis.
What it is
A Discovery Channel computer simulation of a large asteroid impact on Earth, showing the scale of the devastation. It sits in a broader context of early Earth impacts and the moon-forming collision.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites thangalin · 2020-09 · on “Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of Venus – an indicator of possible life?”
When a sufficiently large asteroid[0] slams into Earth, the impact plume[1] can hoist matter off the surface. The velocity of said matter may be sufficiently high to escape Earth's orbit, potentially seeding the solar system with life[2]. [0]: [LINK] [1]: [this video] [2]: [LINK]
Cites SllX · 2021-07 · on “Giant tsunami from dino-killing asteroid impact revealed in fossilized ripples”
Here’s a version with just the impact and some music to enjoy it with. Used to leave this video running on various Macintoshes at the Apple Store on my way out. [this video]
Cites kjaftaedi · 2021-09 · on “Modern snakes evolved from few survivors of dino-killing asteroid”
Bacteria species, sure, but having full on land animals survive an event like that is worthy of note. This discovery channel video might help put things in perspective: [this video]
Cites jacquesm · 2023-08 · on “Asteroid ZTm0038 with a >3% impact probability”
Not to spoil your lunch or anything: [this video] Of course 500 Km is a big difference with 400 meters but to those near the point of impact it wouldn't matter and the global effects would still be beyond anything in our history. This is one interpretation of what this could look like: [LINK]
Cites tim333 · 2025-09 · on “Minerals represent potential biosignatures in the search for life on Mars”
>the energy required to kick up a rock to a trajectory where it will hit Mars (or vice versa) is orders of magnitude more than the energy required to vaporize all nearby life, so we've got a pretty big problem already Not necessarily. Something like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs would have created temperatures at the impact point high enough to vapourize everything but probably also chucked a lot of more distant stuff into the sky that didn't get as hot. Here's a Discovery channel 'simulation' of a large impact chucking stuff up [this video] Not sure it's very accurate but it gives an impression of the sort of thing that may have happened.