Nov. 10, 2023, at 6:12 a.m. NASA Probe to Observe Near-Earth Asteroid's 2029 Close Encounter. More. The NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-APEX hovers over the surface of the near-Earth asteroid Apophis
But life on Earth has been drastically altered by asteroid impacts before; the Chicxulub crater, for example, is evidence of the planet-shaking strike that led to the extinction of the non-avian
Becker's team had previously found such gas-bearing buckyballs in rock layers associated with two known impact events: the 65 million-year-old Cretaceous-Tertiary impact and the 1.8 billion-year-old Sudbury impact crater in Ontario, Canada. They also found fullerenes containing similar gases in some meteorites.
The extinction that occurred 65 million years ago wiped out some 50 percent of plants and animals. The event is so striking that it signals a major turning point in Earth's history, marking the end of the geologic period known as the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Tertiary period. Around 65 million years ago, something unusual happened on
Scientists continuously monitor Earth-crossing asteroids, whose paths intersect Earth's orbit, and near-Earth asteroids that approach Earth's orbital distance to within about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) and may pose an impact danger. Radar is a valuable tool in detecting and monitoring potential impact hazards.
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major asteroid impacts on earth
