Posted on 08/09/2021 12:17:03 PM PDT by Red Badger
About 66 million years ago, an estimated 6-mile-wide (9.6 kilometers) object slammed into Earth, triggering a cataclysmic series of events that resulted in the demise of non-avian dinosaurs.
Now, scientists think they know where that object came from.
According to new research, the impact was caused by a giant dark primitive asteroid from the outer reaches of the solar system's main asteroid belt, situated between Mars and Jupiter. This region is home to many dark asteroids — space rocks with a chemical makeup that makes them appear darker (reflecting very little light) compared with other types of asteroids.
"I had a suspicion that the outer half of the asteroid belt — that's where the dark primitive asteroids are — may be an important source of terrestrial impactors," said David Nesvorný, a researcher from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado, who led the new study. "But I did not expect that the results [would] be so definitive," adding that this might not be true for smaller impactors.
Clues about the object that ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs have previously been found buried in the Chicxulub crater, a 90-mile-wide (145 km) circular scar in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula left by the object's collision. Geochemical analysis of the crater has suggested that the impacting object was part of a class of carbonaceous chondrites — a primitive group of meteorites that have a relatively high ratio of carbon and were likely made very early on in the solar system's history.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Flat Earth dinosaur apocalypse
The great shading of the Earth's atmosphere almost certainly would have lowered the temperature as well. Perhaps the survivors were more cold tolerant.
I am fascinated with an impact in the Egyptian desert. One of the “stones” in a neckless that had graced a Pharos neck was glass. A fellow recognized it as glass and informed the staff at the museum. They went through quite a discussion and it was discovered to be glass. Egyptians didn’t have glass. Turns out a meteor blew apart just above the Egyptian desert sending tons of debris into space and created a “ field of glass” that then fragmented leaving the desert littered with glass fragments.
Of course, one large difference is that aquatic dinosaurs breath air. Fishes don't.
“dark primitive asteroid”
As opposed to what, a white sophisticated asteroid that got vaccinated?
[lampooning apologists for Obama’s BDay party guests]
The weirdest things just pop into my head sometimes.
Very cool!
Kind of like Trinitite.
Oh, good Lord. You don’t really believe that the Earth is only 10,000 years old, do you?
Klandathu.
Civilization must remain human, not insect!
I wonder if my smart phone could record it. That would be so cool.
What ruins my day is the thought of a rogue planets passing through the outer reaches of our system and shaking things up. Or worse, say, rogue asteroids from outside of our solar system (Oumuamua perhaps being a vanguard of some cluster of rocks headed our way buckshot style.)
Avian dinosaurs are still with us. Three Major League Baseball teams are named for specific species.
Will the University of Wisconsin need to remove this giant asteroid due to it being ray-ciss?
DAR
Dark asteroids matter.
Er. Last I read the meteor did not wipe them out. They didn’t all die out in a couple of years. It took several million years. And large reptiles survived. Plus many dinosaurs were no bigger than chickens, yet they died out. So a disaster to the food supply doesn’t really explain it.
It’s like “left brain-right brain”. The theory is invalidated but it lives on through ignorance.
Don’t tell him about vacuum welding. It might be too much.
Plus I remember reading somewhere that the Dinos - some of them - survived for millions of years after the hit. True? False?
To be fair, they only said that “scientists think they know...”.
Scientists say that a lot and they turn out to be wrong a lot.
I’m just glad the horny toads managed to dodge the asteroid.
I like those little guys.
No problem. Just send up Bruce Willis.
Yes they do. It is a crusade with several here. They read through titles hunting for anything related to “devil science” then go out of their way to attack what they consider is blasphemy.
It is a hang over from ignorant 12th century superstition still alive and well. Freedom of ideology means only for themselves, not for others.
And they can’t just say they believe that, they always have to also take a stab at everyone who doesn’t believe exactly as they do. It is radical extremism.
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