What would happens if the Comet Swift-Tuttle hit Our Earth?

The shooting star might be the thing that you admire as a kid, but the sky phenomenon has also become a strong warning that the Earth is not alone in the space, and the number of the space objects could become a hazard.

An artist illustration, the comet collision to the Earth. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1cblBO)

In 1973, based on the orbit calculation of the object using limited observations, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics named Brian Marsden predicted that the Swift-Tuttle comet will hit the Earth in the year of 2126. However, these dire predictions ultimately did not happen, but what if the comet really hit the Earth?

"We must make it clear that it will not happen," said Donald Yeomans, a senior researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and author of "Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Before They Find Us" (Princeton University Press, 2012), as told to Live Science.

When the comet was last seen in 1992, Yeomans was making revisions models of comet movement, making complicated calculations to measure the gravitational effects of the sun and planets on the object space rocks.

Of sightings in 1992, plus the data from 1862 and 1737, showed that astronomers have enough information to find the possibility of a collision in 2126. Keep in mind, Comet Swift-Tuttle instead of the usual space rock.

Such as the Perseid meteor shower, which appeared annual in mid-August occurs when the Earth passed by a trail of debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1cbkRN)

Comet Swift-Tuttle is the greatest objects that cross the Earth, said Yeomans. The object is within 16 miles, and across the Earth every 130 years, and moving at a speed of 36 miles per second or 56 km/s.

The Comet Swift-Tuttle, the comet was discovered by Lewis Swift on July 16 and then a few days later by Horace Parnell Tuttle on July 19, 1862. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1cblBO)

If the comet crashing into planet, the impact energy was approximately 300 times of the asteroid hit the Earth, causing the destruction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. "That would be the worst days for the Earth," he said further.

But the size of the comets or asteroids not be the only thing responsible for cosmic collisions, said Gerta Keller, a geographers at the Princeton University.

The fall of the comet to land or sea may cause destruction in the surrounding area, but the real devastation comes from the gas in the stratosphere, part of the Earth's atmosphere where the ozone layer is located. Sulfur dioxide causes cooling, heat and carbon dioxide causes long term heating, added Keller. This led to drastic climate change and brings mass extinction worldwide.

Keller also explained that most of the Earth  is ocean. Effects caused able to impact on the deep sea, such as the eruption of underwater volcanoes.

Based on the Scientists calculation, the arrival of the comet Swift-Tuttle to the Earth on August 5, 2126, within a distance of 14 million miles, equivalent to 60 times the distance of Earth to the Moon. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LIVESCIENCE]

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