• Question: Could a planet crash into earth?

    Asked by to Dre, Charli, Heather, Oliver, Becky on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rebecca Williams

      Rebecca Williams answered on 20 Jun 2014:


      I hope not!!!

      There are scientists who study space to try and answer this question. They use the orbits of the planets around stars (how the planets move around suns in an oval shape) to calculate what chance there might be for a planet to crash into Earth. They have worked out that right now, there is zero chance.

      If you look 10-20 million years into the future, there is STILL zero chance a planet will crash into us. This is a good thing! When the Earth and the solar system was young, things crashed into us all the time. Some scientists think thats how the moon was formed – a big meteorite or planet crashed into the earth and melted it completely, sending a big chunk of the Earth into space. Eventually all this molten Earth cooled into the moon. They called this event The Big Splat!

      You can watch a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hahpE8b6fDI&list=PLhIBkCalmZZ-a1Ob1WRdT703K7KtZBCY8&feature=share&index=2 which shows how the Earth formed, and then how something hit the Earth forming the moon.

    • Photo: Andrea Cristini

      Andrea Cristini answered on 20 Jun 2014:


      Like Becky says, scientists have shown that for the planets around us we are safe. I think the only way a planet could crash into earth is if two planets had crashed together somewhere else in our galaxy, which then sent one of the planets towards earth. Even if this rare event happened, the planet would have been smashed apart anyway, so only a portion of it could crash into earth. I wouldn’t bet on it though I think you would have more chance of winning the lottery every week!

    • Photo: Charlotte Flavell

      Charlotte Flavell answered on 23 Jun 2014:


      Hey there sirnyancat22,

      The idea that a planet or other large object might crash into the Earth is known as the “Niburu Cataclysm”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_cataclysm

      This was proposed by a lady from Wisconsin in America, who said that she had been visited by grey aliens who have put an implant in her brain and told her that the world was going to end when a large planet (“Planet X” or “Niburu”) crashed into Earth.

      She said it would happen on a day in 2003, but it didn’t. Then she changed her mind and said it would happen in 2012. But it didn’t.

      No other scientists agree with her that it is a remote possibility, but she has quite a few supporters on the internet.

      I think that she might need some help from a brain scientist!!

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