I remember having this theory explained to me once; let’s see if I can get it right.
The theorized asteroid hits some land mass on Earth and the impact causes a column of dirt to rise into the atmosphere and ultimately out of the atmosphere, at least to some degree. (As I understand it, the effect is similar to a column of water which replaces the vacuum left by a dropped object; fill a bowl with water and drop a marble in it to see a small-scale version.)
The column of dirt doesn’t manage to escape Earth’s gravity so it starts to fall back. The dirt this entire time is colliding with a whole bunch of air particles causing a lot of heat to be generated. This heat becomes enough to temporarily (hours) turn the surface of the Earth into an oven, which kills most life. A distant human-evolutionary ancestor had been a mammal which liked to burrow and the insulation provided by the surrounding dirt protected such animals from the heat.
I’m not sure about some details like I’m pretty sure (as theorized) the dirt might turn to glass as it goes up but I’m not sure how much that matters. The important things are the oven-like heat and how our ancestors were spared.
The energy of the asteroid is effectively turned into heat by the planet, which eventually dissipates but hypothetically not before cooking a lot of things.
The theorized asteroid hits some land mass on Earth and the impact causes a column of dirt to rise into the atmosphere and ultimately out of the atmosphere, at least to some degree. (As I understand it, the effect is similar to a column of water which replaces the vacuum left by a dropped object; fill a bowl with water and drop a marble in it to see a small-scale version.)
The column of dirt doesn’t manage to escape Earth’s gravity so it starts to fall back. The dirt this entire time is colliding with a whole bunch of air particles causing a lot of heat to be generated. This heat becomes enough to temporarily (hours) turn the surface of the Earth into an oven, which kills most life. A distant human-evolutionary ancestor had been a mammal which liked to burrow and the insulation provided by the surrounding dirt protected such animals from the heat.
I’m not sure about some details like I’m pretty sure (as theorized) the dirt might turn to glass as it goes up but I’m not sure how much that matters. The important things are the oven-like heat and how our ancestors were spared.
The energy of the asteroid is effectively turned into heat by the planet, which eventually dissipates but hypothetically not before cooking a lot of things.