After witnessing some of the damage that a dinner table-sized meteor did last week after crashing into central Russia, imagine the magnitude of destruction that would have occurred if that flaming rock was the length of 18 football fields. Now stop imagining, because scientists say it happened.

Scientists recently discovered the impact zone of a six mile-wide asteroid that is said to have grudge humped Australia some 300 million years ago – leaving behind a crater measuring 120 miles wide, and causing the brutal extermination of nearly all living things.

This finding marks the third largest asterhole ever uncovered on the planet. Scientists say that the seismic shock and blazing fireball likely incinerated a large portion of Earth before emitting greenhouse gasses from the crater that lingered within the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years. However, this devastation happened long before the existence of dinosaurs.

Researchers say that this discovery sheds new light on the link between asteroids crashing into the planet and mass extinction. The question now is: what stands in the way of a ginormous asteroid slamming into our planet sometime in the near future? Unfortunately, absolutely nothing.

Happy Friday! If you need us, we'll be in our panic room.

More From Awesome 98