Researchers Discover Incredible Way to Reveal What It Looks Like When Asteroids Hit Earth

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered a way to show what it looks like when asteroids hit Earth.

A new video posted to YouTube November 25 captures a raindrop smashing onto the sand in slow motion. The second take shows the same take a little faster and yet a third take shows it even faster than that. The researchers say that when picturing the raindrop as a mini asteroid and the sand as Earth's surface, the fascinating imagery is a small scale portrait of what it looks like when a massive space rock collides with Mother Earth.

Image source: YouTube

"Surprisingly, we found that liquid-drop impact cratering follows the same energy scaling and reproduces the same crater morphology as that of catastrophic asteroid impact cratering," the video description reads.

YouTube user Martin Mehawk said in the comment section that the video displays "spectacular imagery." But Mehawk apparently isn't the only one who appreciates its brilliance. The four Minnesota researchers were also awarded the American Physical Society Physics Fluid Motion Award for their video this year.

Take a look at the fascinating imagery which researchers say is reminiscent of a space crater slamming into Earth:

(H/T: Huffington Post)

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