Astronomers currently monitor more than 2,200 potentially hazardous asteroids larger than a kilometer in diameter swarming around Earth. Admittedly, the actual risk of collision in the coming decades is very low, as they won't come close enough to pose a real threat. Still, scientists run models to simulate what might happen if one of these bodies were to take a fatal trajectory, as happened 65 million years ago, marking the demise of the dinosaurs. Now, a new online application allows anyone curious to learn about the consequences of a space rock colliding anywhere in the world: from Los Angeles to Kathmandu, London to Madrid, or even the smallest town. Just click on the link and enter the desired parameters and the location where you want your simulated space body to collide. You can choose from several different compositions of space rock (asteroids made of iron, stone, carbon, or gold, or a comet made of ice) and select their diameter (up to one and a half kilometers), impact speed, and impact angle. Then, select "ground zero" on the map and press the "launch asteroid" button. The application will then tell you how many people have virtually died in the process, not only from the impact and the crater, but also from the fireball, the shock wave, the scorching winds, and the subsequent earthquake. What would happen in Madrid? For example, using the maximum parameters allowed by the application (largest size, speed, and an impact angle of 90º), a 1.5-kilometer metallic asteroid falling in the center of Madrid would, according to the program, create a crater 70 kilometers in diameter that would reach towns such as Alcalá de Henares, Galapagar, and Illescas. Crater created by the simulated asteroid falling on Madrid Asteroid Launcher The impact alone, which would have more energy than the last super-eruption at Yellowstone , would kill almost 5.5 million people. However, the subsequent fireball would affect the entire Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and southern France , killing some 32.5 million people and seriously injuring some 23 million with burns. Fireball from the simulated asteroid falling on Madrid Asteroid launcher And the damage would not end there: the shock wave would affect almost all of France, Morocco and Algeria, although strong winds would reach even further and a 9.2 earthquake would occur. Almost everyone on the peninsula would perish in the event of an impact of this magnitude. Power of the expansion wave and winds after the asteroid impact Asteroid launcher As a fact: it is believed that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs measured 11 kilometers in diameter, more than seven times larger than our simulated rock and that would end all life in our country. MORE INFORMATION news No They explain, for the first time, why galaxies have such different shapes news No They create a magnetic dust that traps a large amount of microplastics from water in just one hour Asteroid Launcher is the work of computer scientist Neil Agarwhal , who based the application data on several scientific studies whose objective was to calculate the effects of the impact of a hypothetical asteroid.
