The study pinpointed the origin of the impactor and revealed important insights into its chemical composition, revealing that it is a rare, carbon-rich space rock that came from beyond Jupiter.
The findings help end a long-running debate over the nature of the asteroid that caused the mass extinction and change our understanding of our planet’s history.
“The impact that caused the mass extinction, the demise of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals was probably a relatively rare and perhaps even unique event,” said Steven Goderis, a professor of geochemistry at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium and one of the study’s co-authors.
Asteroids are rocky debris from the formation of our Solar System about 4.6 billion years ago. the remainder of the year. Their diameter can reach up to 1000 km.
Most asteroids fall into one of three categories: carbonaceous (rich in carbon), stony (rich in metal silicates), and metallic (rich in iron).
According to NASA, carbonaceous asteroids are the most common, accounting for about 75 percent of all asteroids. of all known asteroids.
S. Goderis said that the composition of different asteroids makes it possible to determine whether asteroids come from the inner or outer solar system. He also notes that carbonaceous asteroids are more distant.
Jupiter is thought to have migrated into the inner Solar System and then bounced back again, bringing these distant carbonaceous rocks into the inner Solar System. It is from here that the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater originated.
This giant 10 km wide asteroid is believed to have hit Earth about 66 million years ago. years ago when it hit our planet in what is now the Gulf of Mexico, triggered a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, writes Newsweek.
The study is published in the journal Science.
2024-08-17 11:53:14