Dino-dooming asteroid hit Earth at 'deadliest possible' angle66 million years ago an asteroid roughly twice the diameter of Paris crashed into Earth, wiping out all land-dwelling dinosaurs and 75 percent of life on the planetPARIS - This much we knew: some 66 million years ago an asteroid roughly twice the diameter of Paris crashed into Earth, wiping out all land-dwelling dinosaurs and 75 percent of life on the planet. As it turns out, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications, the giant space rock struck at the "deadliest possible" angle -- 60 degrees. Analysing the structure of the 200-kilometre-wide crater in southern Mexico where the asteroid hit, scientists ran a series of simulations. Had the asteroid hit head on or at a more oblique angle, not as much debris would have been thrown up into the atmosphere, he added. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the asteroid triggered a mass extinction event and why some species survived while others didn't.

Source: Bangkok Post May 26, 2020 15:00 UTC