"A bigger impact occurred when Earth was struck soon after its formation, producing clouds of debris that formed the Moon, but it was so catastrophic that there is no evidence left."

How does that work?
Is this just a way of saying its a total guess that the moon formed in this way?

Ed, London, UK

"A bigger impact occurred when Earth was struck soon after its formation, producing clouds of debris that formed the Moon, but it was so catastrophic that there is no evidence left."
Yes there is - there's the Moon.

Richard Briscoe, Amersham, England

Talking of "pothole budget's" mentioned by "Billy" , I dont think that Surrey even has a budget, or at least one that they use as there are many,many potholes in the county that are never ever filled.

Simon, Woking, Surrey

Perhaps the asteroid would be hauled in front of a tribunal for being especially predisposed towards Europeans and North Africans...

James Cullup, Oxford,

Bang goes the entire South of England's pothole budget!

Billy Carlin, Paisley, Scotland

j brun, ballymena, ireland - You need to get out more

Tony Lane, London,

Carlsberg don't do meteorite impacts - but if they did.......

Dave St Peters, london,

The craters in the Earth are filled with sea water, its shows planets are gobbled by the Sun, as the planets are going nearer the Sun, the water has dried up.one day planet by planet will be devoured by the Sun slowly in a billions of years.

Raghu, Mysore, India

This is rubbish - we all know the earth is a bowl, and is held on the Shoulders of a giant standing on a turtle.

Dave, Romford, UK

@ Victoria, Oxford. The moon has a lower density than earth, indicating that it is composed of the sort of material found in the crust of the earth (as confirmed by Apollo). The moon has very little iron, as it mostly stayed with the earth after the impact as it had settled to the core by that time.

Henry, Graz, Austria

Victoria,
i think they've contradicted themselves- the evidence is the moon itself!

gareth, northwich, uk

An impact like that (deep to the core) there will be no Earth anymore. A cluster of asteroids maybe. I am going to repair my spaceship right now...
Fernando, Lisbon, Portugal

Fernando Cruz, Lisbon, Portugal

"A bigger impact occurred when Earth was struck soon after its formation, producing clouds of debris that formed the Moon, but it was so catastrophic that there is no evidence left."

Anyone else curious as to how they know about this when there's no evidence left?

Victoria, Oxford,

I wouldn't be surprised if the artist who created the graphic was British. It is a bloody British website, after all.

Chris, Worthing, England

j brun, ballymena, ireland..

ROFL - it's the way you tell 'em!!!

Paul, New Forest,

I wonder whether Stanfords offers a spinning-globe model, suitable for a desk-top.

H. P. Flitman, Bloomington, Ind., U.S.A.

If signs are found of quondam life on Mars, then asteroid fears on earth take on a whole new face. The poor globe could one day disappear like the eight ball in the corner pocket.

Eugene, heidelberg, germany

O the wonder of creation ! And to think that God has given us these things to ponder in our tiny minds, that we might incline our hearts back to Himself through His beloved Son who created the heavens and the entire universe as He knows it and for us to marvel at !

j brun, ballymena, ireland

Thank God it would have just missed us!

Dave Morgan, Portree, Scotland

Questions such as "wouldn't magma fill the hole?" and "why isn't the water pouring in?" - I think the artist is just depicting the scale of how massive the crater is...

Niall Orr, Sydney, Australia

tsk! tsk!

George Kosinski, Grassy Creek, USA

Actually Ireland says yes to Lisbon, on second count.

Eamon, Dublin, Ireland

With that much mass removed from one side of our big marble, would we all wobble?

Ben, Whangarei, New Zealand

Yeah, it has just caught Germany as well so must be British. It looks like it wiped out Swindon too - probably caused about 200 pounds worth of damage!!

J, Sydney,

Crater is likely a misnomer to dumb down for the public. Think "impact feature", as yes, a feature such as this would get filled rapidly by molten cores, especially the sloppy jiggly nature of the planets 4B years ago.

Billy, Houston,

why isnt all the water pouring into the hole ?.

paul cosentino, Cairns, Au

You might want to tell the artist that the Earth has a molten core, with only a thin solid crust.

Mark, Auckland,

If you look a little closer, or get to know a map of the UK, you will see that Cornwall has in fact been totally obliterated by the crater.

John, London,

If the crater was that deep, wouldn't it be filled with magma from the center of the planet?

Rob H., Oxford,

That crater would have been a great place to chuck all our rubbish.

Mike, Brighton, England

Interesting graphic of how the earth would look...am guessing the the individual who created it is British, what with the crater seemingly positioned just of the Cornish coast.

Grinnic, London,