https://www.pitara.com/tags/earth-impacts/Recent content in Earth Impacts on Pitara Kids NetworkHugoen-usSat, 13 Jun 2026 21:46:31 +0530https://www.pitara.com/science-for-kids/planet-earth-for-kids/the-earth-takes-a-battering/Sun, 29 Sep 2002 14:09:00 +0000https://www.pitara.com/science-for-kids/planet-earth-for-kids/the-earth-takes-a-battering/<p>During its life span, our planet has suffered the impact of close to 30 small planets, up to 10 miles in diameter and travelling 60 times the speed of sound. Each such impact releases about a thousand times as much energy as would be released if all the nuclear powers exploded all their present weapon stocks.</p> <p>About 5,000 giant meteorities with diameters of more than a kilometre have hit the Earth over the past 600 million years, with an average strike rate of one per 120,000 years. Meteorites with diameters greater than 300 metres have hit the Earth once in every 10,000 years.</p>