{"id":54192,"date":"2024-01-24T09:58:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T09:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1fefe57e-5b5c-4f60-8663-09b276aa602b"},"modified":"2024-01-24T11:32:32","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T11:32:32","slug":"chicxulub-the-story-of-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/chicxulub-the-story-of-the-asteroid-that-killed-the-dinosaurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicxulub, the story of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists are slowly revealing the secrets of the Chicxulub impact crater and the asteroid that caused it. <\/p>

By Lewis Dartnell\n <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 24 January 2024 at 09:58 AM<\/p>

\n\n

It\u2019s well established that the Chicxulub crater is the remnants of the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.<\/p>

But how much do we really know about the asteroid<\/a> that fell to Earth, and precisely what caused the crater?<\/p>

The mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period led to the extinction of the dinosaurs as well as the loss of 75% of all plant and animal species on Earth.<\/p>

Artist’s impression of the Chicxulub asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Credit: Mark Garlick \/ Science Photo Library \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The Chicxulub crater, buried beneath the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula in Mexico, was identified in 1990 as a giant impact feature \u2013 some 150km across and 20km deep (although by now well filled-in with sediments).<\/p>
The calculated formation of this crater coincides with the mass extinction of the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago, and the impactor is believed to have been an asteroid about 10\u201315km in diameter.<\/p>
**For more on asteroids and meteorites, read our interview with Dr Sarah Crowther on the** **science of space rocks<\/a> or find out how dogs can help locate meteorites on Earth<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>**
**What caused the Chicxulub crater?<\/strong><\/h2>** $\"An$
An illustration showing the location of the Chicxulub crater, shortly after its formation. The Chicxulub crater is thought to be the impact scar left over from the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and other species on Earth. Credit: Mark Garlick \/ Science Photo Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The Chicxulub crater is one of the largest impact structures ever found on Earth. But there\u2019s something else exceptional about this impact.<\/p>
It seems that the crater was created by a carbonaceous chondrite (CC) asteroid \u2013 a dark rock full of organic compounds.<\/p>
This is surprising because impacts from this sort of object are rare. They make up only 5% of all meteorites collected.<\/p>
So why is it that one of the largest craters on Earth \u2013 and the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs \u2013 was formed by such an asteroid?<\/p>
In 2021, David Nesvorn\u00fd and his colleagues at the Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute<\/a>, in the US, released a paper showing how they had been trying to get to the bottom of this mystery.<\/p>
They built a computer simulation of how the orbits of objects in the main asteroid belt<\/a> can be dislodged to become near-Earth asteroids that have the potential to collide with our planet.<\/p>
$\"A$
A photograph of the area where the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater and is buried beneath the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula in Mexico. This photo was captured by astronaut Tim Peake while onboard the International Space Station. Credit: ESA\/NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Their model included over 42,000 asteroids with widths greater than 5km in the main belt, and how they\u2019re affected by influences such as the radiation pressure of sunlight or Jupiter<\/a>\u2019s gravity.<\/p>
They calculated that Venus<\/a> and Earth receive about the same number of strikes from asteroids bigger than 5km, with Mars<\/a> being hit about 3 times less.<\/p>
Interestingly, Nesvorn\u00fd found that about 6% of the simulated Venus impactors had evolved into a retrograde<\/a> orbit beforehand \u2013 equivalent to cars colliding head-on with a much higher impact speed \u2013 and hit the planet at a staggering 220,000km\/h.<\/p>
But what about the composition of the largest impactors, such as the Chicxulub asteroid?<\/p>
$\"An$
An illustration showing the indication of the Chicxulub impact crater, created using data captured by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which was launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on 11 February 2000. Credit: NASA\/JPL<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Nesvorn\u00fd and his colleagues found that because of the orbital dynamics involved, smaller impactors (less than a kilometre in diameter) are most likely to have come from the inner edge of the asteroid belt, so have an ordinary, stony composition \u2013 as found with most meteorites discovered.<\/p>
But the largest impactors hitting Earth are more likely to have originated from the middle or outer asteroid belt, where CC objects are more common.<\/p>
They conclude that the impactor that triggered the mass extinction 66 million years ago was a main-belt asteroid that quite likely (they calculate around 60% probability) originated from beyond 2.5 AU.<\/p>
***Lewis Dartnell was reading<\/em> Dark Primitive Asteroids Account for a Large Share of K\/Pg-Scale Impacts on the Earth by David Nesvorny et al. Read it online at*** ***arxiv.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***This article originally appeared in the October 2021 issue of <\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine.<\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n***
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