Explain at least two ways that comets and asteroids can affect the Earth?

Answer 1

Comets can affect Earth in the future and have affected Earth a great deal in the past.

Primordial Earth:

Primordial Earth, particularly in the first billion years of Earth, was shaped greatly by comets and asteroids and meteorites. Based on the known populations of comets now and projections to that earlier time, there is substantial evidence that half or more of all water on Earth was brought by comets.

Comet History:

Comets were a pretty unexpected apparition in the night sky before anyone knew what they were. For thousands of years people have seen them an taken them to be some kind of omen. History records great events and decisions connected with comets. Starting around the 1600s when science and astronomy were becoming separate from Astrology and magic, comets were a helpful and motivating factor in stimulating the study of the cosmos. They have been such ever since.

We now know that comets are the source of meteor showers, an amazement to mankind throughout history.

There are not many reliable examples of large comets striking the Earth in recent history, but we can be quite certain that is has happened. Comet Shoemaker-Levi was quite spectacular when it hit Jupiter in 1993, leaving a disturbance in Jupiter's atmosphere that was larger than the size of the Earth.

Comet Future:

Still a a stimulus for scientific study, comets give us an opportunity to sample material from the most distant parts of the solar system. In particular, the source of most comets is from either the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune or the far more distant Oort cloud.

Comets are large enough to be dangerous.

Comet nuclei range from about 100 meters to tens of kilometers across. They are not solid like asteroids but composed of rock, dust, water ice, and frozen gases. Still, a large comet impact on Earth could be catastrophic for life and probably has been in the distant past. Unlike asteroids, they are less likely to appear suddenly and the probabilities for such a disaster are much lower for comets than asteroids.

Answer 2

Comets and Asteroids can affect the Earth by ...

A Asteroid hitting Earth and causing a crater and a Comet can cause excitement on Earth if they are spotted.

Answer 3

They can impact the Earth & damage would be relative to size.

Answer 4

it can destroy earth