Meteors have the power to destroy 10 billion atomic bombs hitting the Earth at the 'super dangerous' angle, completely eliminating dinosaurs

66 million years ago, an asteroid estimated to be up to 81 km in diameter crashed into Earth at the most dangerous angle possible, maximizing the release of the gas causing climate change that left the dinosaurs completely extinct. This is a conclusion just published by researchers at Imperial College London on May 26, 2020 in the journal Nature Communication.

Meteors have the power to destroy 10 billion atomic bombs hitting the Earth at the 'super dangerous' angle, completely eliminating dinosaurs Picture 1

The image simulates the moment when a giant meteorite rushes into the Earth causing the dinosaurs to go extinct

For a long time, the archaeological community agreed with the hypothesis that the dinosaurs became extinct after a large block of meteorite collided with the surface of the Earth, creating a Chicxulub crater 200 km wide. in Mexico today. However, the orbital trajectory and direction of the meteor when the collision occurred is still a controversial topic among researchers.

To find out more about the disaster, researchers at Imperial College London decided to use a supercomputer provided by HP to create a simulated 3D model of the collision. million years ago. The results of the simulation study showed that meteorites collided with the Earth at an angle of 60 degrees. This collision angle maximizes the gas causing climate change such as sulfur and carbon dioxide, compared to the shallow or near vertical impact angle.

According to calculations by the researchers, about 325 billion tons of sulfur were pushed into the atmosphere by the impact of the collision - four times higher than the Krakatoa volcano eruption in 1883, which reduced the temperature of the entire Earth. Bridge throughout 5 years. 

Meteors have the power to destroy 10 billion atomic bombs hitting the Earth at the 'super dangerous' angle, completely eliminating dinosaurs Picture 2

Chicxulub crater today still traces the collision millions of years ago

As a result, the huge amount of gas emitted from the collision completely obscured the Sun, creating a "nuclear winter" that made the Earth into Ice Age. The change of habitat, sudden change in temperature, reduced food supply, combined with toxic atmosphere caused 75% of life on Earth, including dinosaurs, to be completely destroyed.

" For dinosaurs, the worst scenario actually happened. The meteorite impact released a huge amount of gas that caused climate change, triggering a series of events that led to the dinosaur's extinction. "The disaster is getting worse when the meteorite hits the Earth in one of the most dangerous corners possible, " said Professor Gareth Collins, who led the research at Imperial College London.

" The simulation model shows reliable evidence that the meteorite plunged into the Earth at a very steep angle, about 60 degrees above the horizon, in the northeast ."

Meteors have the power to destroy 10 billion atomic bombs hitting the Earth at the 'super dangerous' angle, completely eliminating dinosaurs Picture 3

The bigger the dinosaur, the harder it is to survive in harsh environments.

Earlier, a team from the University of Texas also identified the power of this meteorite when it crashed into the Earth. Based on the melting of the rock samples left behind Chicxulub crater, the scientists determined the asteroid destruction equivalent to the destructive force of 10 billion atomic bombs. 

Immediately after the asteroid landed in modern-day Mexico, the impact immediately caused a tsunami several hundred meters high, simultaneously throwing rocks and dirt back into the crater of the asteroid. before that with terrible speed. About 130 meters of material is accumulated and buried in just one day. Many areas around the crater immediately dried up the seawater and were covered with these piles of material, while thousands of square kilometers of forest were burned.

Refer to ZDNet