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Not even a meteorite would destroy the planet entirely.
No, but depending on its size or where it strikes it could trigger a series of events that would make the planet inhospitable to life. I suppose it could trigger extreme seismic and volcanic activity. If a particularly large volcano erupted, or many smaller ones, the gases released could be poisonous to many forms of life, or ash clouds and such could affect the atmosphere such that the sun's rays are blocked and the planet cools significantly. Or if it were particularly large and landed in the ocean, it could cause significant tsunamis and raise sea levels by a great deal. If a meteor supposedly caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, I'm sure it could cause the extinction of humans too.
And a significantly large meteorite would knock the earth out of its regular orbit, which would cause climate changes that could make life impossible for some life-forms that managed to survive all nasty things you just described. And in my opinion, the chance that humans will be amongst the survivors is nihil.
It's not a proven fact that "dinosaurs" went extinct because of a meteorite (true, some (species) would have, but not the world-wide population)... In fact, there's even living proof that some species survived and there are many theories about dinosaurs evolving into other species.
While it's highly unlikely (or at least I like to think so) that a meteorite could "knock earth out of it's orbit" by such a margin it couldn't naturally recover, a collision with the moon is a real possibility (by then the human race would probably have already left the planet or went extinct by it's own means)... Wouldn't take much imagination what would happen if the moon "came down".
A meteorite with sufficient enough a mass to cause lasting damage to the Earth is possible, though we would know if one was on a collision course with Earth years in advance... And it's quite possible we would already notice the effects before it's even in the vicinity (gravity).
What could happen, and though also not very likely it's a real possibility and wouldn't require an exceptionally large meteorite, is for a meteorite to strike an (in)active volcano and make it go off with VEI-8 (supervolcanic).... Or it could occur naturally (scary though).
This would make a large part of the Earth inhabitable and would "poison" the rest for some time.... Not sure if this could possibly make the Earth totally inhabitable for humans (probably not), but it would kill most of us, and quite possibly to a degree we would not soon recover from (if we had the chance - i.e. new dominant species, think Neanderthal vs. Homo sapien).
Either way, nothing we can do about it (except flee).
Not sure what would happen if Sol and a black hole would cross paths... Would we even notice (with time "slowing down")?.
PS:
As I see it, the world could only end in four possible ways:
1. Collision
2. Torn apart by gravity (Black Hole or 3.)
3. Burned clean by the sun (will be a Red Nova in about 5 billion years) and later sucked up by it.
4. Human interference (would not be surprised if humanity will invent a "planet destroyer" in the future).
Last edited by Joentjuh at 2:04 pm, Nov 24 2011________________
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