Scientists have found evidence that a gigantic comet measuring 62 miles in diameter smashed into Earth about 12,800 years ago, causing the planet to erupt into flames and threatening the survival of mankind. The comet would have resulted in an ice age that would have lasted for thousands of years after sending massive amounts of material in the atmosphere that would have blocked out the sun.

Scientists have theorized of such a cataclysmic event before, but this is the first major evidence that a comet strike likely happened, and the findings were so significant that it was split into two different research papers. To come to their conclusions, scientists examined 170 different sites around the globe, and determined that the fires may have been worse than after the event that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Scientists also think that chunks of the comet are still floating somewhere in the solar system. It was a 62-mile-wide fragment that struck Earth right as the Ice Age was ending, ushering in yet another global cooling event.

“On a ho-hum day some 12,800 years ago, the Earth had emerged from another ice age. Things were warming up, and the glaciers had retreated,” reads the statement from the University of Kansas. “Out of nowhere, the sky was lit with fireballs. This was followed by shock waves. Fires rushed across the landscape, and dust clogged the sky, cutting off the sunlight. As the climate rapidly cooled, plants died, food sources were snuffed out, and the glaciers advanced again. Ocean currents shifted, setting the climate into a colder, almost “ice age” state that lasted an additional thousand years.”