A video showing what would happen if the largest asteroid in our solar system slammed into Earth resurfaced on social media, Sunday.
The largest known asteroid in our solar system is Ceres, which is roughly 583.7 miles in diameter, comparable to Alaska, according to StarLust. While it’s unclear whether this is the asteroid depicted in the video shared on social media, it’s absolutely enormous.
A video by the Discovery Channel illustrating what it’d look like if the largest asteroid in the solar system collided with Earth. pic.twitter.com/L2xPKbJq6T
— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) October 9, 2022
The start of the video shows the daunting shadow of the asteroid as it skims closer and closer to the surface of our humble home planet, before smashing into it in a fiery ball of terror. The impact sends waves of molten rock and debris in all directions as fires engulf the land until the entirety of Earth descends into a hellscape of death and destruction.
It’s pretty cool, but very intense. The shockwaves would send particles out into the atmosphere that would cause enough damage for a mass extinction event, similar to one that killed the dinosaurs, according to one hypothesis.
The resurfacing of the video coincided with the release of a new “Rick and Morty” episode that detailed an eerily similar plot. While I don’t want to give away spoilers for those who haven’t caught up on the epic cartoon series yet, lets just say that Rick saved the day and dinosaurs are the worst. (RELATED: ‘Potentially Hazardous’ Asteroid To Skim Past Earth)
It also comes just a couple of weeks after NASA successfully plowed its DART probe into the Dimorphos asteroid to test if we could divert the course of other giant space rocks heading for impact with Earth. Could it be that NASA is genuinely worried we’re headed for sudden mass extinction from the threat of collision and hasn’t told us mere peasants about it yet?
What would you do if you knew that all human life would be evaporated by an imminent asteroid impact? Would you tell everyone, causing mass panic and complete societal collapse?