Millions of years ago, the Earth was hit by an asteroid about 10 kilometres wide that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now it has been discovered where the asteroid came from.
A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science reveals where the asteroid that caused the Chicxulub Crater came from. This gigantic crater was created by a massive asteroid that crashed into the Earth about 66 million years ago, causing a mass extinction, including the dinosaurs.
It came from beyond Jupiter
Unlike most of the small asteroids that hit our planet these days, the giant asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, about 10 kilometres wide, came from beyond the gas giant Jupiter, according to researchers. According to the findings, it was a C-type asteroid and came from the dark regions of the outer Solar System. We know that C-type asteroids are rich in carbon and that they also make up 75 per cent of all known asteroids.
The impact of the giant asteroid’s impact on Earth was just as great. Today, the impact site is called Chicxulub Crater and is largely buried under the Yucatan Peninsula. When the asteroid hit the shallow waters, it threw enormous amounts of debris into the sky and caused sunlight to reach the Earth’s surface. Therefore, over time, photosynthesis stopped and a long winter was effective. Eventually, it wiped out about 70 per cent of Earth’s species.
According to researchers, a thin layer of sediment from this event, called the K-Pg boundary, is found around our planet. And this sediment contains an element called ruthenium, which is extremely rare in the Earth’s crust. Scientists say that almost 100 per cent of the ruthenium in this layer of sediment came from the asteroid.
More importantly, the researchers found that the ruthenium isotopes (which are different types of ruthenium) in this deterministic layer resemble carbon-rich meteorites found all over the Earth. Moreover, the ruthenium samples did not match the remains of other large asteroid impacts from objects formed in the inner Solar System. Previous analyses had not used ruthenium.
