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Yeeeeow! What just whizzed by? It is a giant asteroid, ten miles across, and it's headed right for the Earth! A brilliant flash fills the sky as it enters the atmosphere - will it burn up in the air like a meteor? NO! It strikes the shallow sea in a blinding fireball!
A vast cone of red-hot rock and steam blasts upward above the atmosphere only to fall back and flare again upon re-entry. Vast forest fires are started all over the world by the intense heat! Enormous tidal waves two kilometres high roar across the shorelines of North and South America, sweeping everything away! Huge clouds of dust spread quickly from the impact site to cover the whole Earth!
Finally the surface of the Earth is hidden from us by the clouds of dust and steam. As the global fires die below the clouds, the whole surface of the Earth grows dark and cold. It is all over in an hour, but it will be six months before sunlight reaches the ground again! How can anything survive?