PREVIOUS EVENTS

What would happen if the earth was involved in a near-miss with a comet?

When the comet's dust particles reached our atmosphere they would rapidly heat, melt and evaporate.  The resulting vapours would oxidise to form "meteoric smoke".  A close cometary flyby would inject a huge amount of "smoke" into our atmosphere, significantly affecting the chemical processes we are used to, and potentially altering our climate.

Tasha Aylett is studying for a PhD at Leeds University.  She will explain her research into how the dust from a comet's tail would affect us.