9,000 craters associated with the fall of asteroids have been discovered on Earth's satellite.
Scientists stated that traces of impacts asteroids that fell on the Moon millions of years ago echo with catastrophic events on Earth. According to the researchers, this indicates that prehistoric asteroid impacts on our planet were not isolated events, reports Space.com.
It is likely that such catastrophic events were connected to a series of smaller collisions on the Moon and on earth. About 9,000 craters have been found on the satellite of our planet, which appeared as a result of the fall of asteroids.
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In the course of the study, scientists from the Center for Space Science and Technology at Curtin University in Australia studied microscopic glass balls in lunar soil samples that were delivered to Earth by the Chinese Chanye-5 probe in 2020.
Such balls from appeared as a result of the impact of intense heat and pressure caused by meteorite impacts. By estimating the age of such “beads”, scientists can reconstruct the chronology of lunar bombardments.
Scientists also found that the time and frequency of collisions between asteroids and the Moon correlated with the impact of space rocks on the Earth. This means that the simulation built by the team also reflects the impact of space rocks on our planet.
The age of some glass balls found on the moon is about 66 million years. This corresponds to the time when the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit the Earth. This impact led to what is known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which wiped out about three-quarters of the species that lived on the planet.
The asteroid, about 10 kilometers in diameter, slammed into Earth at a speed of about 19.3 kilometers per a second As a result, the Chicxulub crater with a diameter of 150 kilometers and a depth of 19 kilometers was formed. The fall of the asteroid caused the spread of powerful shock waves, as well as a number of other consequences dangerous to all living things, including the emission of dust that covered the sun.
Scientists believe that together with this giant asteroid, others may have fallen to Earth, smaller And their traces can be found on the moon.
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Earlier, a group of scientists led by researchers from Dortmund stated that the cause of the death of dinosaurs and other living creatures on Earth was probably not an asteroid. Researchers believe that megavolcanoes are to blame.
