As of you of course know by now – unless you were absent from planet Earth over the last week – the European Space Agency landed a robot on a moving comet. Yes, it’s incredibly freakin’ cool and a first for mankind, but just how big was the comet 7P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko though? Well, only about 3 kilometers in length. That might not sound particularly impressive, but when you compare it with something such as, the city of Los Angeles; it becomes a whole lot more impressive.
A comet that you could actually jog from one end to the other in less than an hour is likely more than large enough to do serious damage – like the comet that killed the dinosaurs. (Not exactly the most comforting thought, but still kind of cool nonetheless.)
To help put the size of 7P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in perspective. Artist Matt Wang took a photo of the comet taken by the Rosetta spacecraft, and paired it alongside the city of L.A. As you can see, that’s one monstrous space rock. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about any danger of the comet colliding into our planet.
On the downside, there are dozens of similar comets and asteroids whizzing by our little blue orb all the time. And if any of those rocks hit our planet we won’t even be around to compare their size.
** Correction: NASA changed to European Space Agency (ESA)