An artist imagines the Chicxulub impact.
Yet much mystery still surrounds this event despite ample geological and paleontological research.
A new paper inSciencehas helped solve one question: what pop in of space rock crashed down into Earth?
An artist imagines the Chicxulub impact. (Photo: Donald E. Davis/NASA viaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
This means its from the outer solar system, beyond Jupiter.
Despite being quite common in space, siliceous asteroids are much more likely to hit Earth.
This can be seen from South Dakota to India to Italy.
Ruthenium crystals in gas phase. (Photo: Periodictableru viaWikimedia Commons,CC BY 3.0)
It divides the two eras in its name, marking geological time with rock high in iridium.
Within this boundary, the researchers discovered isotopes of ruthenium.
Ruthenium is an element, a metal, which is quite rare on Earth.
But its presence in the K-Pg boundary indicates the asteroid’s nature.
Its the nail in the coffin, Dr. Fischer-Godde said.
This ruthenium isotope signature that we measure cannot be anything else other than a carbonaceous asteroid.
Ruthenium crystals in gas phase.
