BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Incoming! – Planetarium Show *new article*

What devastated the dinosaurs, excavated a great hole in the ground, and broke windows in Russia? What produced the life we know on Earth, but could also destroy it? The answer: impacts from space. It's the subject of the planetarium presentation "Incoming!".

Incoming! – Planetarium Show

Here is a short trailer for "Incoming!" with George Takei. The more ... um ... mature Star Trek fans will remember him as Mr. Sulu.

Nearly twenty years after the Tunguska event, an expedition from the Soviet Academy of Science was sent to the site, led by Leonid Kulik. Here is a photograph taken in Tunguska by the expedition.

One of the best known meteor craters on Earth is Barringer Crater in Arizona. It's 1300 meters (0.8 mile) across and 170 meters (nearly 600 ft) deep. It was the first feature on Earth to be identified as an impact crater.

Photo credit: D. Roddy (LPI)

Unlike Barringer crater in Arizona, the Chicxulub impact crater in Mexico is buried. However its subtle remains can still be detected from the air. This NASA image of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico reveals the existence of an ancient crater. There is considerable evidence that it was this impact that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, and had an enormous effect on the evolution of life on Earth.

Image credit: Modified NASA image, with scale and labels to increase clarity by David Fuchs

The Chelyabinsk meteor was a fireball streaking across the sky of the Siberian city. It was extensively photographed because so many people in Russia have video cameras on their cars. No one was killed, but many people needed treatment for injuries from flying glass.

Here is a map of known impact craters on Earth.