Asteroid

Evidence is mounting which indicates that the dinosaurs disappeared from the earth 66 million years ago due to a catastrophic impact. A huge asteroid, renegade planetoid or rock of some sort smashed into the earth creating a huge dust storm and resulting change in weather. Furthermore, new evidence suggests it wasn’t the first time. Paleontologists have now found signs in the rocks that another huge impact extinguished thousands of species 200 million years ago.

For evidence, they are using radioactive testing of thin layers of sediment which may be the fallout of dust from the impact, changes in the species counts in differing layers of rock, abrupt changes in the rock itself that have been laid down, studies of microorganisms’ fossils, and changes in flora of the era such as opportunistic ferns that suddenly flourished after their enemies died out.

These occurrences of huge things smashing into the earth may not all be history. It could happen again, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. On October 30, 1937, a planetoid called Hermes came closer than a quarter-million miles from earth. This is closer than the moon. If it had been much closer than that, the earth’s gravity could have sucked it in, wiping out whatever city it may have landed on. It would also have kicked up such a dust storm that the weather could have become colder for hundreds of years, and destroyed the buildings and connections of civilization with all the resultant earthquakes.