A blue-whale-sized asteroid zoomed surprisingly close past Earth this week... so naturally, we had questions.

Would it wipe out humanity? Trigger a dinosaur-style disaster? Smash into the ocean and cause giant tsunamis? Or explode in the sky before it even reached the ground?

In this week’s Squiz Kids Science Short, we unpack what would actually happen if an asteroid about the size of a blue whale hit Earth, why where it lands matters, the giant explosion over Russia that flattened millions of trees, and how scientists are already protecting Earth by tracking space rocks and even nudging them off course.

Space science, giant explosions, dinosaurs, NASA and asteroid-bumping experiments? Yep. This one’s a beauty.

Researched and hosted by Christie Kijurina