Configure Asteroid
🖱️ Click or tap anywhere on the map to set your impact target
Impact Results
What is the Asteroid Impact Simulator?
The Asteroid Impact Simulator is a free, browser-based tool that lets you explore the physics of asteroid collisions with Earth - no downloads, no sign-up required. Adjust the size, speed, approach angle and composition of your space rock, then drop it anywhere on a live world map to see what would happen. In seconds you get estimates for crater diameter, fireball radius, shockwave reach and earthquake magnitude, all based on published crater-scaling science.
Whether you are a teacher looking for a vivid classroom demonstration, a student working through a physics assignment, or simply curious about what Tunguska-scale events really mean in practice, this tool makes the numbers tangible. Compare a 20 m carbonaceous fragment (think Chelyabinsk 2013) with a 1 km iron behemoth and see the difference on the map and in the results panel.
Key Features
Click-anywhere map
Target any point on Earth - city centre, open ocean, polar ice cap - and watch the impact zones appear in real time on an OpenStreetMap base layer.
Four compositions
Iron, rocky, carbonaceous and icy asteroid types each carry a different density, dramatically changing the energy released on impact.
Angle physics
Impact angle changes how energy couples into the ground. A 90° vertical strike digs the widest crater; shallow trajectories make smaller craters and favour airbursts.
Six damage metrics
Every simulation returns crater size, impact energy in megatons, fireball radius, 3rd-degree burn zone, shockwave reach and equivalent seismic magnitude.
Real historical benchmarks
Results are compared to Hiroshima and the 1908 Tunguska event so the scale feels grounded, not abstract.
Works on any device
Fully responsive from a small phone up to a 4K desktop, with touch-friendly sliders and tap-to-place map interaction.
Classroom-safe
Entirely fictional and browser-based. No personal data collected. Suitable for secondary and tertiary physics, earth-science and astronomy lessons.
Instant, offline-ready
Calculations run entirely in your browser. A service worker caches the app so it can work without a connection after the first load.
How to Use the Simulator
Set diameter
Drag the slider from 10 m (Chelyabinsk-class) up to 1 000 m. Larger asteroids produce far bigger craters - the relationship is not linear.
Set velocity
Range runs from 11 km/s (Earth escape velocity) to 72 km/s. Energy scales with velocity², so doubling speed quadruples the impact energy.
Choose angle
90° is a perfectly vertical strike. Shallower angles (15°-30°) make smaller craters and make the object more likely to break up in the air.
Pick composition
Iron is the densest and most devastating. Icy comets release far less energy per unit of volume and often break apart high in the atmosphere.
Click the map
Tap or click any spot on the globe to plant your orange target marker. You can reposition it as many times as you like before launching.
Launch and analyse
Press Launch Asteroid, watch the impact animation on the map, then read crater size, energy, seismic magnitude and all damage radii in the results panel.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The simulator uses simplified physics models inspired by accepted crater-scaling laws and kinetic-energy conversion. It is suitable for educational exploration, not scientific prediction. For research-grade data, consult NASA CNEOS or the Earth Impact Effects Program.
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The fireball radius marks the zone where heat is intense enough to instantly vaporise or ignite everything at the surface. Beyond it, thermal radiation still causes third-degree burns out to the larger thermal radius shown in the results panel.
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Iron (7 800 kg/m³) is the densest and most destructive. Stone/rocky (3 000 kg/m³) is the most common type to reach Earth. Carbonaceous (2 000 kg/m³) is carbon-rich and fragile. Ice/comet nuclei (1 000 kg/m³) often disintegrate high in the atmosphere.
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Impact angle changes how kinetic energy couples into the target rock. A vertical 90° strike makes the widest, deepest crater. Shallower trajectories make smaller, elongated craters and make the object more likely to break up in the air before it reaches the ground.
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Chelyabinsk 2013 (~20 m, ~500 kt TNT), Tunguska 1908 (~60 m, ~10-15 Mt TNT), Barringer Crater in Arizona (~50 m iron, 1.2 km crater) and the Chicxulub impactor (~10 km) that ended the Cretaceous 66 million years ago.
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Yes. The simulator is browser-based, entirely fictional and collects no personal data. All scenarios are hypothetical, and it works on shared classroom devices without any login.
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Stony objects smaller than roughly 50 m typically break up in the atmosphere and cause an airburst instead of a crater. Iron objects are stronger and can reach the ground at about 20 m. Shallow entry angles raise these limits.