meteors are the shit.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060602/sc_afp/ussciencemeteor_060602155617
Meteor mega-hit spawned Australian continent: researchers
Fri Jun 2, 1:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A meteor's roaring crash into Antarctica -- larger and earlier than the impact that killed the dinosaurs -- caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history and likely spawned the Australian continent, scientists said.
Ohio State University scientists said the 483-kilometer-wide (300-mile-wide) crater is now hidden more than 1.6 kilometers (one mile) beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
"Gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out," the university said in a statement Thursday.
"Its size and location -- in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia -- also suggest that it could have begun the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward," they added.
Scientists believe that the Permian-Triassic extinction paved the way for the dinosaurs to rise to prominence.
The Wilkes Land crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which marks the impact that may have ultimately killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The Chicxulub meteor is thought to have been 9.6 kilometers (six miles) wide, while the Wilkes Land meteor could have been up to 48.3 kilometers (30 miles) wide -- four or five times wider...
Also, (for the 95023405943059430502438570485080 time) I fucking love NASA!
Meteor mega-hit spawned Australian continent: researchers
Fri Jun 2, 1:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A meteor's roaring crash into Antarctica -- larger and earlier than the impact that killed the dinosaurs -- caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history and likely spawned the Australian continent, scientists said.
Ohio State University scientists said the 483-kilometer-wide (300-mile-wide) crater is now hidden more than 1.6 kilometers (one mile) beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
"Gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out," the university said in a statement Thursday.
"Its size and location -- in the Wilkes Land region of East Antarctica, south of Australia -- also suggest that it could have begun the breakup of the Gondwana supercontinent by creating the tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward," they added.
Scientists believe that the Permian-Triassic extinction paved the way for the dinosaurs to rise to prominence.
The Wilkes Land crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which marks the impact that may have ultimately killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The Chicxulub meteor is thought to have been 9.6 kilometers (six miles) wide, while the Wilkes Land meteor could have been up to 48.3 kilometers (30 miles) wide -- four or five times wider...
Also, (for the 95023405943059430502438570485080 time) I fucking love NASA!