A recent study indicates that crashes asteroids The moon millions of years ago coincided with some of the biggest impacts meteorites experienced Earthsuch as those that led to its destruction, dinosaurs.
The study also found that major impacts on Earth did not occur in isolation, but were accompanied by a series of smaller impacts.
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The researchers believe that their findings shed new light on asteroids in the… Solar System The interior, including the possibility of destructive asteroids bound to Earth.
For the purpose of research, the scientific team studied microscopic glass grains up to two billion years old that were found in a sample of regolith or rock debris. [طبقة غير متجانسة تغطي الصخور وتتألف من غبار وتراب وصخور متكسرة وتوجد على الأرض والقمر وبعض الكواكب] It was brought to Earth from the Moon in December 2020 as part of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar mission.China National Space Agency“.
We found that some age groups of lunar glass grains exactly match the ages of some of the largest impact craters on Earth, including the Chicxulub impact crater responsible for the dinosaur extinction event.
Professor Alexander Nemchin, Curtin University
The heat and pressure from the meteorite impacts led to the formation of glass grains, and scientists say their age distribution simulates the impacts, revealing a timeline of those strikes.
Lead researcher Professor Alexander Nemchin, from Curtin University in Australia, said that the results indicate that the timing and number of asteroid impacts with the moon may also have been demonstrated on Earth, which provides us with additional information about the history of our planet’s development.
He added that he and his colleagues combined “a wide range of microscopic analytical techniques, numerical computer modeling and geological surveys to determine how and when these microscopic glass grains from the Moon formed.”
Nimchin also stated that they found “some age groups of lunar glass grains exactly match the ages of some of the largest impact craters on Earth, including the Chicxulub impact crater responsible for the dinosaur extinction event.”
The study also discovered that the large impact events that affected the Earth, such as the “Chiksholub” crater 66 million years ago, may have been accompanied by a number of smaller impact events.
“If this assumption is correct, it indicates that the intervals and number of collisions recorded by the Moon may provide valuable information about collisions on Earth or the inner solar system,” the study states.
In a related context, study co-author, Associate Professor Katharina Meljkovic, from the Curtin Center for Space Science and Technology in Australia, said that future studies would help shed light on the history of the moon. She added, “The next step will be to compare the data from the Chang’e-5 samples on the one hand and other lunar soil and the ages of impact craters on the other hand, so that we can detect other large impacts across the moon, which may in turn carry new evidence about the collisions. that may have had its impact on life on Earth,” added Meljekovic.
The results were published in the journal Science Advances.