Manson Impactor

And finally, that bit of "something different" that I did over 30 yrs ago and very fortunately found and resurrected in March, 2012. Thought this was lost to the ages or long-ago discarded. I imagined and wanted and do a depiction of the astronomical K-T event that led to the demise of the dinosaurs. However, I believe I drew the incoming asteroid too small! So, this is therefor the asteroid that made the Manson, IA crater some 74 million yrs ago. As I have learned, it was 1 1/4th miles across, weighed some 10 billion tons, and made a crater 24 miles across. Here is the view then, as seen from over 300 miles away to the southwest across the Niobrara Sea in what is proto-Colorado. Despite the distance, it is still as bright as a very close lightning bolt the instant before slamming into the Earth at about 40,000 miles per hour, to turn the predawn sky into day. As what still often happens in our time, a waning crescent Moon resides in conjunction with a bright planet over the horizon. Nine million years after this event, another asteroid some 5 times larger struck off southern Mexico in shallow water with the energy of 10 billion Hiroshima bombs to cause a planet-wide catastrophe. See? The Moon and Jupiter do not catch all of these things! My time is limited too, and perhaps later, I might colorize this (or another better artist here can do so?).