Largest Asteroid Crater Found

Geophysicists have accidentally discovered a 400-km-wide impact zone in the Warburton Basin of Central Australia due to an asteroid that broke into two pieces before striking Earth an estimated 300 million years old, twice the size of the Chicxulub crater of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

Younger Dryas Asteroid Impact

Scientists have found mounting evidence of unique mineral signatures in North America and Greenland soil samples indicating an asteroid impact near modern-day Quebec about 12,900 years ago, corresponding to archaeological global climate cooling and the most recent ice age known as the Younger Dryas.

Meteor Shockwave Circled Globe

The shockwave from a 17-m, 10,000-ton meteor that burned up over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February was powerful enough to circle the Earth twice, as measured by an International Monitoring System designed to detect ultra-low frequency acoustic waves (infrasound) from nuclear tests.

Meteorite's Left-Handed Molecules

Previously believed to be unique evidence as an indicator of life, excesses of "left-handed" (chiral) aspartic and glutamic amino acids found in meteorites collected from Canada's Tagish Lake have been shown to also be created through non-biological processes.

Oldest Crater Found in Greenland

Geologists have discovered evidence of Earth's oldest known impact crater centered along the western coast of Greenland, the remains of an asteroid 30 km in diameter smashing into the surface about 3 billion years ago and creating a crater 25 km deep and 600 km wide.

New Mineral from Meteorite

Scientists studying the Allende meteorite that landed in Mexico in 1969 have discovered a new mineral embedded in the rock, a titanium oxide dubbed panguite, a mineral previously unknown to science and believed to be one of the oldest minerals formed in the solar system.

Measurement of Yarkovsky Effect

Scientists working with NASA's OSIRIS-REx space probe to measure asteroid 1999 RQ36 have done so with such accuracy as to measure a force known as the Yarkovsky effect, the tiny push generated by the body absorbing sunlight and emitting that energy as heat.

Meteorites Carried Nucleobases

New analysis has determined that meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites carried at least three nucleobases unique to DNA and RNA and rare or absent in terrestrial samples, providing at least some of the basic building blocks for early life.

New Minerals in Meteorites

Two new minerals, named krotite and wassonite, have been discovered inside two different meteorites and join about 60 unique minerals known to date to the formation of our solar system.

Impact Crater in DR Congo

Initially described in 1919 and recently seen on satellite images in the 1990s, the so-called Luizi structure in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been confirmed as the first known impact crater in central Africa after shatter cones were discovered on-site.

Double Strike Killed Dinosaurs

Discovery of the Ukranian Boltysh Crater in 2002 has led scientists to believe that multiple impacts by comets or large meteors over several thousand years may have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs instead of one single event.

Jupiter Struck Again

Amateur astronomers have documented the third strike on Jupiter by a small comet or asteroid in a little over a year, forcing professional astronomers to re-evaluate the frequency and probability of what was once considered a rare event.

Age of Solar System

After analysis of the uranium isotopes in the Efremovka and Allende meteorites found in Kazakhstan in 1962 and Mexico in 1969, respectively, scientists have determined an age of 4.5682 billion years as the age of our solar system, a value up to 1.9 million years older than previous estimates.

"Fresh" Meteorite Crater

A relatively small impact crater has been discovered in the Egyptian desert that is believed to have occurred only a couple thousand years ago and would have remained whole until impact, making astronomers reevaluate their estimates of the frequency and threats of significant meteorite impacts.

Impact Crater in DR Congo

Deforestation of the last decade in the Central African country of DR Congo has revealed a possible giant impact crater 36-46 km wide that is clearly visible in satellite images.

Ancient Antarctic Airburst

Evidence of tiny spherules and a layer of extraterrestrial dust found in two ice cores from Antarctica point to an ancient "airburst" event, where an estimated 100,000-ton stony meteorite exploded in the air about 481,000 years ago.

Meteorite with Organic Molecules

Analysis of the small Murchison meteorite found in Australia in 1969 has revealed that it contains more than 14,000 organic (carbon-containing) compounds and may be older than the Sun, yielding new insight into the early Solar System and its formation.

Meteorite Impact Circa A.D. 500

Satellite data reveal a double crater in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria dating from about A.D. 500, possibly due to a meteorite or comet that fragmented and caused tsunami and global cooling around this time, an event that may have been witnessed and recorded by the Aboriginal peoples.

Ancient Indian Impact Crater

Scientists have found evidence of an impact crater in the Shiva basin off the western coast of India that is four times as large as that beneath the Yucatan Peninsula, leading to speculation that this may have been the asteroid impact leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.