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.

📉 Falling 0.5x Science
2,299
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#4666
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
1
2008
5
2009
21
2010
22
2011
25
2012
35
2013
76
2014
97
2015
73
2016
100
2017
120
2018
158
2019
158
2020
170
2021
251
2022
185
2023
313
2024
247
2025
229
2026
13

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.