Largest asteroid ever to hit Earth was twice as big as the rock that killed off the dinosaurs

LiveScience ^ | 10/5/2022 | Harry Baker

[LibWhacker]

The destructive space rock was somewhere between 12.4 and 15.5 miles wide.

The largest asteroid ever to hit Earth, which slammed into the planet around 2 billion years ago, may have been even more massive than scientists previously thought. Based on the size of the Vredefort crater, the enormous impact scar left by the gargantuan space rock in what is now South Africa, researchers recently estimated that the epic impactor could have been around twice as wide as the asteroid that wiped out the nonavian dinosaurs.

The Vredefort crater, which is located around 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Johannesburg, currently measures about 99 miles (159 km) in diameter, making it the biggest visible crater on Earth. However, it is smaller than the Chicxulub crater buried under Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, which measures around 112 miles (180 km) in diameter and was left by the dinosaur-killing asteroid that struck Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period about 66 million years ago.

But impact craters slowly erode over time, which makes them shrink. The most recent estimates suggest that the Vredefort crater was originally 155 to 174 miles (250 to 280 km) across when it was formed 2 billion years ago. As a result, the Vredefort crater is considered the largest impact crater on Earth despite being smaller than the Chicxulub crater today.

In the past, scientists thought the Vredefort crater was originally much smaller — around 107 miles (172 km) wide. Based on that estimate, researchers previously calculated that the asteroid responsible for the impact would have measured around 9.3 miles (15 km) across and collided at a speed of around 33,500 mph (53,900 km/h). But in a new study, scientists have revisited the crater's measurements and gained new insight into the size of the enormous space rock.

[srmanuel]

I bet one second after the asteroid smashed into earth, climate change instantly became a real issue

[Larry Lucido]

“But impact craters slowly erode over time, which makes them shrink.”

I didn’t realize that George Costanza was a geologist.

[wannabegeek]

The question is, did the dinosaurs really exist?

Stupid question, huh?

When was the supposedly asteroid that hit the earth surface?

Shouldn't asteroid upon getting in to the earth's atmosphere will burn up in to dust?

The earth's moon don't have atmosphere, if you look at the lunar surface there're lots of craters. Is there similar crater of fallen asteroid in the earth's surface like those in the lunar surface?

[Empire_of_Liberty]

“The Rock that Killed the Dinosaurs”, “The Big Bang”, “Climate Change” - science is sure fun since it became fiction!

At least when Percival Lowell was seeing things, it was his own money he was wasting.

[EEGator]

Are you one of those dinosaurs aren’t real and the Earth is 6,000 years old people?

[Clutch Martin]

“...dinosaurs aren’t real and the Earth is 6,000 years old...”

I like the part where the dinosaurs were on the Ark.

[DennisR]

“may have been”

Must be a writer looking for something compelling about which to write. Major fail.

[KobraKai]

Yes the dinosaurs existed.

66 million years ago the asteroid slammed into what is now the Yucatan peninsula. We know this from the crater that is there, and the sediment layer on the Earth.

An asteroid only has a few seconds in the atmosphere to burn. The dinosaur killer was too big to burn up all the way.

The Earth has plate tectonics, most of Earth’s ancient craters get ground up into the mountains.

[roving]

Sure it did...

[roving]

I prefer the Bible over any other thing

[wannabegeek]

I think it's only theoretical.

Of all the stuffs I read by those who didn't think so and those who thought so, I'm more convinced dinosaur didn't exist.

Did dinosaurs only lived in Siberia?

I think it's all baloney like this so-called Covid-19 pandemic thing cause by so-called SARS-CoV-2 virus that don't exist.

And the so-called anthropogenic global warming, too, all stupid theories that proponents are afraid to debate with real scientists who keep asking for proofs.

[Iceclimber58]

Everything these so called scientists say is really just a wild ass guess.

[EEGator]

Amazing how the carnivores behaved themselves for the ride...
The Bible is some real truth with a bunch of allegorical truths.

[EEGator]

It’s a guess based on the evidence gathered.
It’s a far more likely guess than dinosaurs aren’t real and the Earth is 6,000 years old.

[Mr. K]

Didn’t you learn ANY basic geology? Earth Science? Did you go to high school?

[Recompennation]

First person Mr. is a little cranky this morning.

[BroJoeK]

wannabegeek: "I think it's only theoretical.
Of all the stuffs I read by those who didn't think so and those who thought so, I'm more convinced dinosaur didn't exist."

What's factual is all the fossils found these past 200 years -- including about 11,000 individual dinosaurs.
The only explanation which makes sense is that those fossils are what's left from living animals we call dinosaurs.

wannabegeek: "Did dinosaurs only lived in Siberia?"

No, two thirds of all dinosaur fossils found were in Europe and North America.

wannabegeek: "I think it's all baloney like this so-called Covid-19 pandemic thing cause by so-called SARS-CoV-2 virus that don't exist."

Here is a photograph of the coronavirus:

wannabegeek: "And the so-called anthropogenic global warming, too, all stupid theories that proponents are afraid to debate with real scientists who keep asking for proofs."

They are not "real scientists" if they ask for "proofs".
Strictly speaking, "proof" is not part of the scientific method.
Instead, new discoveries and experiments are used to falsify existing explanations.
If those fail to falsify an idea, then the explanation is considered confirmed.

To my knowledge, anthropogenic global warming is an unconfirmed hypothesis, not a strongly confirmed theory.

[Pikachu_Dad]

So they adjusted the size of one crater based on erosion but not the other ? Hmm.

[BroJoeK]

"Everything these so called scientists say is really just a wild ass guess."

It's much more than that.
In scientific terminology, a confirmed observation is a fact.
Facts in this case include geological strata, fossils, DNA, isotope decay rates, etc.

In scientific terms, an explanation which can be falsified is called a hypothesis, not a "wild ass guess".
If a hypothesis passes tests intended to falsify it, then it can be accepted as a confirmed theory.

An example is Darwin's 1859 evolution hypotheses.
Since 1859 it has been tested and modified many times, but his basic ideas of 1) descent with modifications and 2) natural selection as driving evolution are today considered confirmed theories with many observed facts.