• Question: how big is the largest astaroid ever recorded to have fallen to earth, and the one that killed the dinosaurs doesn't count!

    Asked by lupopippa to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      Hi lupopippa,

      If we don’t count the one that killed the dinosaurs, then I’m afraid I don’t know. That is the biggest impact we have on record, but there may have been bigger ones. It is believed a planet sized asteroid hit the Earth when it was still very molton and knocked some of the Earth out which joined together to form the moon, but we can’t be certain this happened.

      Asteroid impacts are very common though, asteroids the size of footballs hit all the time, but most of them hit oceans or uninhabited land which covers most of the Earths surface and they are never seen apart frmo as shooting stars!

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      One of the most spectacular asteroid craters is Crater Lake in the US, but this was much smaller than the impact that killed the dinosaurs. I think the one that killed the dinosaurs was one of the largest that we know about, scientists have estimated that it would have had a diameter of about 10km, but we know of a few others that were similar but a bit smaller.

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Hey lupoppia,

      I’m afraid i don’t know the answer to this one! The dinosaur related one is the only large one i know about but as James V said the biggest crater is in the US….so potentially the asteroid that caused that one?

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