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There are two ways life as we know it on planet Earth could end with catastrophic suddenness.
1) An asteroid could strike, destroying our planet.
2) A thermonuclear war.
A variation of 1) 60 million years ago is thought to have killed the dinosaurs. If not outright, changes in Earth’s atmosphere and climate may have caused them to starve to death for lack of nutrients.
Many/most of the dinosaurs were herbivores and they had nothing to eat.
Earth was devoid of vegetation.
All paleontologists have left is their fossils, which attest to their one-time existence.
NASA scientists estimate it would take an asteroid 60 miles (96 km) wide to totally obliterate life on Earth.
But what about smaller asteroids?
Has this happened before?
This is Tunguska, Russia.
Western Siberia.
In 1908 full-size trees over an area of 830 square miles were knocked over. Others were burned to a crisp.