Representative image of asteroid above an ocean Mr Scientific YouTube NASA has named the asteroid … What will happen if this asteroid hits the earth? That’s the preliminary result of an experiment that used paintballs to help clear up some of the confusion around what happens when a space rock splashes into the ocean. An asteroid that big traveling at that speed has the energy roughly equal to a 1 million megaton bomb . The likelihood of this happening is extremely small with a 1 in 45,000 chance, however, in a 2008 lecture Neil Degrasse Tyson warns of just what would happen if the asteroid did hit. 000mph Atlantic-bound rock 'could wreak havoc affecting millions In 1998, a big Hollywood movie entitled “Deep Impact” imagined what would happen if a very large asteroid hit the Atlantic Ocean. This means that most likely we won’t be hit by one of these for hundreds of thousands of years. If a mile-wide asteroid hit Earth, it would strike the planet's surface at about 30,000 mph. It is hard to believe that it has been more than 20 years since it first came out, because I can still remember it very vividly. In 1998, a big Hollywood movie entitled “Deep Impact” imagined what would happen if a very large asteroid hit the Atlantic Ocean. When an asteroid hits the ocean, it’s more likely to produce storm-surge-sized waves than giant walls of watery death. Advertisement It is hard to believe that it has been more than 20 years since it first came out because I can still remember it very vividly. The most damaging kind of impact would be an asteroid that hits the ocean, not the land. First these objects are rare. This Is Exactly What Will Happen If An Asteroid Hits Earth. They only hit Earth on average once every half million years or so. It has been known since 2006 that although small, the asteroid Apophis could hit the planet by flying through a “gravitational keyhole” when passing the Earth which would lead to an impact thirteen years later. Remember that the depest point in the oceans is in the Mariana Trench, and is only 11 km deep! An asteroid hitting the ocean can cause a tsunami (i.e., huge wave) that would inflict catastropic damage to coastal cities and assets to great distances. If this kind of asteroid hits the ocean, it would create towering tsunamis that can travel several miles inland. For an asteroid 10 km in diameter, it doesn't matter where it hits, ocean or dry land. An asteroid hitting land causes mainly localized damage. That seemed to indicate that environmental effects of the impact, such as possible toxic-metal poisoning, might have slowed down recovery on the ocean floor closer to where the asteroid hit. If an asteroid / meteorite of about 10 km in diameter hit either a) land or b) ocean, on earth, what may happen? It's very likely that an asteroid like this would wipe out most of life on the planet.