Scientists are investigating the possibility that a second asteroid hit Earth about the same time as the one believed to have killed off nearly all dinosaur life. The investigation is linked to a smaller crater recently discovered in the ocean. Researchers say the crater may have been created by a large asteroid. Scientists have long believed that […]
An international team of astronomers observed 2020 XL5 and confirmed it is an Earth Trojan asteroid orbiting the sun along the same path as Earth. 2020 XL5 is the second, and larger, Earth Trojan asteroid discovered. The team of U.S. National Science Foundation researchers used images of the sky’s horizon at daybreak, captured by the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope […]
When the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs slammed into the planet 66 million years ago, the impact set wildfires, triggered tsunamis and blasted so much sulfur into the atmosphere that it blocked the sun, which caused the global cooling that ultimately doomed our giant predecessors. That’s the scenario scientists have hypothesized. Now, a new […]
This GIF shows the flash of an asteroid impacting Earth’s atmosphere over the Caribbean Sea on June 22, 2019. It was captured by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument aboard GOES-16, an Earth-monitoring satellite operated by NOAA and NASA. CIRA/CSU, RAMMB/NOAA/NASA › Larger view When a lightning detector on a NOAA weather satellite detected something […]