Asteroids aren’t as rare on our planet as we may think. About 17,000 of them visit us every year. You've probably even seen at least one in your life — for example, if you've seen a shooting star. They leave these bright tails behind them as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere. Luckily for us, most asteroids explode 30-50 miles above the surface, but what if one large asteroid actually hit the Earth?

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