Researchers reveal new findings about asteroid impacts.
The gigantic chunks from space threaten the earth much more often than expected.
Boulder - Every 15 million years, an asteroid the size of a city hits the earth.
This study was presented last week at the annual Goldschmidt conference.
But it shouldn't be the only research presented at the geography congress.
Researchers discovered that 2.5 to 3.5 billion years ago the earth was regularly hit by asteroid impacts.
They brought destruction and devastation, but equally life on earth today would not be possible without them.
Organization for research and development: |
Southwest Research Institute |
Founder: |
Tom Slick |
Founding: |
1947, San Antonio, Texas, United States |
President: |
Adam L. Hamilton |
Asteroid impacts: US researchers determine ten times more collisions than previously assumed
Evidence for impacts, which according to asteroid researcher Alan Harris cannot be ruled out in the future, can still be fathomed today on the basis of rocks. Simone Marchi comes across a remarkable finding during her examination. A thin layer in the rock provides information on the effects of the asteroids tens of billions of years ago. Based on the chunks, you can still understand their impact today.
As the scientific director of the Southwest Research Institute in the American state of Colorado found out, the dangerous lumps from space produced a layer in the rock that can still be seen today. The impact of the asteroids would have evaporated the rocks, causing small spheres to develop. The enormous force of the asteroids hurled the spheres into space before they fell back onto our world.
Experts recently calculated an asteroid impact for the year 2022. The American research team has now developed a model that is supposed to get to the bottom of the consequences of the asteroids.
In particular, the global distribution of impacts will be further investigated.
Research to date reveals that around three billion years ago there must have been around ten times as many asteroid impacts as previously assumed.
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Researchers presented new findings on asteroid impacts.
© IMAGO / Science Photo Library
Thanks to asteroid impacts, oxygen was able to spread across the earth
In addition, the assumption is growing that the asteroid played an essential part in creating the basis of human life.
Researchers have found out that thanks to the asteroid impacts at that time, the oxygen content could spread.
The next step is now to further research the common relationship.
Scientist Rosalie Tostevin from the University of Cape Town has long been concerned with the phenomenon of the asteroid, whose Earth collision may soon be threatened due to a changed trajectory.
Their findings are based on the thesis of the American researchers.
She pointed to chemical markings that would give clues to asteroid-favored oxygen content in the atmosphere.
Research into asteroid impacts on Earth is often patchy
On planets that have no atmosphere - such as the moon - a detailed record of previous asteroid impacts is easy to follow.
The different weather conditions that prevail on Earth, however, make the asteroid tracks on our planet patchy.
It wasn't until the late 1970s that researchers discovered the Chicxulub crater in Mexico.
It took more years to identify it as the place where the asteroid that destroyed the lives of dinosaurs struck.
Much evidence of asteroid impacts and their ecological consequences is patchy today.
The model from the American institute is intended to help determine the number and size of the asteroids.
Asteroid, meteorite, comet: that's the difference
An asteroid is a tiny astronomical body that is too small to form a round planet.
They are also known as minor planets or asteroids.
Asteroids are several meters to kilometers in diameter.
A planet is at least a thousand kilometers in diameter.
A meteorite is not quite as big as an asteroid.
The size is in the millimeter to meter range.
If meteorids enter the earth's atmosphere, they burn up and become shooting stars.
If they remain intact until they hit the earth's surface, they are called meteorites.
A comet usually has a long tail, but here the term is not clearly delimited from the asteroid, it has something to do with its place of origin and with ice.
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