An international team of scientists from Germany, Belgium and Italy has uncovered the origin of the asteroid that collided with Earth 66 million years ago and led to the extinction of dinosaurs and many other organisms. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Science.
A space rock with a diameter of about 10 km fell off the coast of modern Mexico, leaving a crater 145 kilometers wide. As a result of the catastrophe on the planet, about 70% of the species at that time, along with the dinosaurs, became extinct. The impact crater was named Chicxulub in honor of the local population, and the stone itself was called the Chicxulub meteorite.
In the new study, the team chemically analyzed the asteroid’s remains and found that it contained a rare metal called ruthenium, an element commonly found deep below Earth.
The scientists compared the results with samples from other asteroid impact sites in South Africa, Canada and Russia, as well as a pair of carbonaceous meteorites that dominate the outer region of the main asteroid belt. The chemical signatures of ruthenium in the Chicxulub meteorite matched only those in carbonaceous meteorites, suggesting its origin is in the outer reaches of our star system.
The researchers emphasized that the Chicxulub crater is so far considered the only place where an asteroid from the outer solar system is known to have fallen to Earth.
Earlier scientists I learnedIt turns out that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs greatly accelerated the evolution of birds.
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Source: Gazeta
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