Crash an Asteroid Into the Earth!

A new website lets astronomers — and anyone who likes to watch stuff blow up — calculate the damage a comet or asteroid would cause if it hit Earth.

The interactive website, called Impact: Earth! (available at www.purdue.edu/impactearth), is scientifically accurate enough to be used by the Department of Homeland Security and NASA, but user-friendly enough for elementary school students, according to the researchers who developed it.

The site could help scientists and the public alike better understand the destructive potential of comets and asteroids, which have caused massive extinction events in our planet's past, researchers said.…

See SPACE.com for links to further info.