Home » The impact of extinct dinosaurs may come from the outer asteroid belt | TechNews

The impact of extinct dinosaurs may come from the outer asteroid belt | TechNews

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Researchers from the Southwest Research Institute say that the asteroid (about 10 kilometers in diameter) that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago is likely to have originated in the outer half of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was previously thought that there would be no large-scale impact. Things.

It is generally believed that the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs hit the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, exploding a crater called Chicxulub crater about 150 kilometers in diameter buried underground. The core samples indicate that the composition of the impactor is similar to that of carbonaceous chondrites. However, carbonaceous chondrites are relatively common, but none is close to the size of the Chicxulub event.

David Nesvorný, the lead author of the “Journal Icarus” describing the study, said he decided to find a place where the Chicxulub striker might hide.

Using NASA’s Pleaides supercomputer, the research team simulated the trajectory of 130,000 asteroids in the zone between Mars and Jupiter. The analysis was based on a thermal model that could push celestial bodies into dynamical escape hatches (dynamical escape hatches), which are affected by the solar system. The gravitational influence of other planets can push celestial bodies into orbits near the earth.

The results of the study show that the 10 kilometers wide celestial body located in the outer half of the main asteroid belt hits the Earth at least 10 times more frequently than previously thought (on average about once every 250 million years). Co-author Simone Marchi said that this result is very interesting, not only because this area is home to a large number of carbonaceous chondrite impactors, but also because the team simulates for the first time the orbit of a large asteroid close to the Earth.

(This article is reprinted with permission from the Taipei Planetarium; the source of the first image: Pixabay)

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