Submitted by phoinex711 t3_z9zv33 in askscience
Alblaka t1_iylqguu wrote
Reply to comment by redlinezo6 in Did the impact from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs change the earth’s orbit? by phoinex711
To append another perspective to this: The entirety of Earth's biosphere makes up an extremely small part of the planet. Essentially, Earth is a massive ball of near-molten rock, with a very thin crust, that is covered in a microscopic layer of water and grime. We're part of that grime.
So when a small pebble (aka a meteor) hits Earth, the planet hardly cares, it's just that the outermost layer, the grime, will be disrupted.
That's how an extinction level meteorite impact can both be so devastating to everything we know, yet also be mostly irrelevant to the planet as an astronomical object.
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