According to researchers from the American University of Rochester, the diameter of the asteroid that made a crater 250-280 kilometers long was not 15, but 25 kilometers in diameter.

We’ve known for a long time that the extinction of the dinosaurs was due to an asteroid collision, but it turns out that this was not the largest celestial body to hit our planet. One , Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets According to the scientific journal, long before trees appeared on Earth, a 25-kilometer asteroid smashed into the planet and formed the current Fredvoort crater near Johannesburg.

At the time of impact, the estimated size of the crater was between 250 and 280 kilometers. This was originally attributed to an asteroid 15 kilometers wide, but according to a new calculation by researchers from the American University of Rochester, it could not be 15 kilometers, but 25 kilometers.

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For comparison, the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs was an asteroid 5-15 kilometers long.

Based on the measurements, experts found that the impact of a 15-kilometer-long celestial body will leave a 172-kilometer crater behind.

Although there wasn’t much life on Earth at the time of the collision, scientists believe the asteroid may have had a greater impact on the climate than the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The large amount of dust in different parts of the planet has been blocking sunlight from the surface for decades. This significantly cooled the planet, and then, due to the carbon dioxide released during the impact, when the dust settled, raised the average temperature of the planet by several degrees.

Experts believe that thanks to the new findings, they will in the future better understand what happened to the Earth nearly two billion years ago.

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