GETTY IMAGES, PIM KASKES, WINDRACERS/BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY
A giant asteroid measuring 10km (6 miles) in diameter hitting Earth some 66 million years ago wasn’t the main cause of death for the dinosaurs, according to a new study. The impact, which formed the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, released more energy than a billion nuclear bombs, but it was the dust it sent into the atmosphere that spelled the end for three quarters of life on Earth.
Published in the journal Nature, the study by a team of scientists from the Royal Observatory of Belgium suggests that clouds of fine silicate dust produced by pulverised rock sparked a dramatic period of global cooling.