It’s been just revealed that the asteroid that managed to wipe off dinosaurs from Earth slammed into our planet at the deadliest possible angle, according to the latest news.
FoxNews reveals that there are some new simulations that have been performed by the British scientists which show that the space rock which is believed to have been larger compared to mount Everest, hit our planet at an angle of about 60 degrees – this maximized the number of climate-changing gases that were thrust into the upper atmosphere.
66 million years ago, an asteroid killed the dinosaurs
It seems that this massive collision probably unleashed billions of tons of sulfur and blocked out the sun. This triggered a nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and about 75% of all life on the planet, 66 million years ago, according to expert opinions.
“For the dinosaurs, the worst-case scenario is exactly what happened. The asteroid strike unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This was likely worsened by the fact that it struck at one of the deadliest possible angles,” lead researcher Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said in a statement as cited by FoxNews.
One of the worst-case scenarios
Some previous studies have suggested that this massive rock slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Penninsula at 30 degrees and there are also other studies that claim that the space rock crashed almost straight down at 90 degrees.
“Our simulations provide compelling evidence that the asteroid struck at a steep angle, perhaps 60 degrees above the horizon, and approached its target from the northeast,” Collins continued.
He explained that “We know that this was among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality on impact, because it put more hazardous debris into the upper atmosphere and scattered it everywhere — the very thing that led to a nuclear winter.”