Asteroid Impact Theories

Commenters speculate on catastrophic events like asteroid or meteor impacts, solar storms, supernovas, and volcanic eruptions as causes of past mass extinctions or major Earth disruptions, referencing hypotheses such as Younger Dryas and Miyake events.

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Keywords

youtube.com H2S TIL harvard.edu CH4 NASA earth.html HN researchgate.net en.m impact earth extinction meteor asteroid strike atmosphere solar event mass

Sample Comments

rickdangerous1 • Apr 29, 2020 • View on HN

Maybe a comet impact? Use your apocalyptic imagination to find the scenario most likely to you?

AndrewDucker • Jan 11, 2019 • View on HN

Definitelyhttps://m.phys.org/news/2012-11-cosmic-rays-reveal-event-ear...

tigereyeTO • Jul 2, 2025 • View on HN

Interesting. There’s a hypothesis that Earth was struck by an impact 12,800 years ago in North America but the impact site wasn’t identifiedhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younger_Dryas_impact_hypothe...Could these be related?

nawitus • Sep 29, 2013 • View on HN

Asteroid impact, global nuclear war etc.?

wyck • Feb 6, 2021 • View on HN

My takeaway was this was an impact from a meteorite but I'm not 100% sure. Is there an "explain this like we are having a real life conversion" version?

MiguelVieira • Oct 11, 2023 • View on HN

Yeshttps://www.reuters.com/science/huge-ancient-solar-storm-rev...

thrown-0825 • Aug 13, 2025 • View on HN

Giant meteor impact would be nice.

docmechanic • Mar 21, 2025 • View on HN

'At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the 'devastating' effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers say these super-powerful blasts -- caused by the death of a massive star -- may have previously stripped our planet's atmosphere of its ozone, sparked acid rain and exposed life to harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. They believe a supernova explosion close to Earth could be to blame for both the

stephancoral • Dec 12, 2016 • View on HN

It was an asteroid impact event.

stephancoral • Dec 12, 2016 • View on HN

It was an asteroid impact event.