How big was the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs?

KOMPAS.com – The impact that ended the age of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago was one of the worst Feminas that life on Earth has ever experienced.

An asteroid 9.6 km wide, called Chicxulub, hit the waters of what is now Mexico, triggering a mass extinction that killed more than 75 percent of the species on Earth.

Reported from National Geographic, Just then, an unexpectedly strong earthquake shook and rolled up the Earth’s crust.

A tsunami over 45 meters high hit the coast of North America.

In addition, forest fires raged hundreds of km away from the impact site.

Also read: Scientists find fossils of dinosaurs that died when an asteroid hit Earth

This is caused by the searing heat of the asteroid’s initial impact plume and the blast of debris that followed.

Reported from Space.com, Chicxulub Crater with a width of about 144 km and a depth of 20 km gives a rough idea of the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Harvard astrophysicists Amir Siraj and Avi Loeb have performed calculations and estimated that the incoming object may have been about 7 km wide.

However, it is assumed that the asteroid is part of a long-period comet.

Asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter orbit more slowly than long-period comets, so they would have to be larger to bore holes on Earth the size of Chicxulub.

Also read: How did the cockroaches survive the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs?

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