Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2018

O ne of the most relevant events in the history of life on our planet is the impact of the asteroid that pro- duced a mass extinction 66 million years ago, sweeping away about 75% of the liv- ing species and putting an end to the dom- ination of the great reptiles. The asteroid, 9-12 km in diameter, fell into the current Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatan peninsula, T he fires triggered by the return to Earth of the blazing material thrown into the atmosphere by the impact of Chicxu- lub have until now been considered the critical element in the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. The reality could be different. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 blasting out a crater more than 180 km in diameter. This crater remained hidden un- derground until the ‘70s, before being ran- domly discovered by two geophysicists searching for oil fields. As the epicentre of the impact was relatively close to the cur- rent town of Chicxulub, the researchers agreed to call the crater, the asteroid and the event by the same name: Chicxulub.