Which led to the extinction of dinosaurs

Austrian researcher Christian Koeberl and his colleagues have discovered that a rocky asteroid struck what is now Mexico 66 million years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was therefore not an ice-rich comet, as previously thought. The scientists were able to prove this using the “geochemical fingerprint” of the impact in the crater. The study is In the magazine “Science” back.

A team led by Mario Fischer-Göde from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne (Germany) examined the remains of the impactor in the Chicxulub crater. Based on the isotopes of the element ruthenium, “it is very clear that the object that impacted there was a carbon-containing asteroid,” the researchers, including Köberl, a professor at the Department of Lithospheric Research at the University of Vienna, explained in a press release. It comes from “beyond the orbit of Jupiter,” meaning that it was created at a much greater distance from the Sun than the Earth orbits.

Thousands of asteroids in the solar system

Asteroids are chunks of rock and metal that—unless they are blown away in the rarest of cases and hurtled toward Earth, like the meteor mentioned 66 million years ago—move in regular orbits around the Sun, like planets, but much smaller. There are thousands of them in the Solar System. Comets, on the other hand, are made mostly of dust and ice. As they approach the Sun, the latter evaporates and becomes visible as a “tail.” Meteor showers like the current Perseid shower are made up of dust grains that burn up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere.