What caused a tsunami 30,000 times more powerful than the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami? A new modeling study says this was one of the results from the Cretaceous Chicxulub asteroid impact.
asteroids
Posted inNews
Tiny “Pancakes” Suggest Some Asteroids May Stay Active
Analysis of a meteorite that fell in Costa Rica shows that its parent body may resemble the asteroid Bennu.
Posted inNews
Impact Crater off the African Coast May Be Linked to Chicxulub
The underwater crater, spotted serendipitously in commercial observations of seafloor sediments, is believed to have formed at roughly the same time as the famous Cretaceous-Paleogene impact event.
Posted inScience Updates
A Time Capsule from the Early Solar System Is En Route to Earth
After an exciting encounter with asteroid Bennu, the OSIRIS-REx mission team looks forward to hitting pay dirt when a hefty sample of ancient planetesimal material is delivered to Earth next year.
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Galaxy Mapper Tracks Asteroids Closer to Home
The Gaia mission’s asteroid survey will help dig deeper into the solar system’s rocky history.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Pushing the Limits of IR Spectra: Using Nano-FTIR on Meteorites
A new method, nano-FTIR, is used to examine microstructures and processes on grains, displaying its benefit for examining asteroid returned samples through a meteorite.
Posted inNews
Impact Structure Hidden Under Arctic Ice Dates to the Paleocene
Greenland’s Hiawatha impact structure, more than 30 kilometers in diameter, is much older than previously thought, new results suggest.
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A Giant Impact Triggered Earthquakes for Thousands of Years
When an asteroid struck South Africa during the Precambrian, earthquakes rocked the region for millennia as Earth’s crust reequilibrated, new research reveals.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Deep-Space Origin for Volatile-Rich Asteroids
Spectral data and modeling suggest that volatile-rich main-belt asteroids initially formed at much greater distances from the Sun (>10 AU).
Posted inNews
Data from Satellites Help Uncover Exploding Meteors
By using data from two lightning-spotting satellites, researchers measure explosions of thousands of small meteors and create a database that could help the planetary defense community.