Scientists representing Harvard University suggest that the "killer" of dinosaurs was part of a comet that arose on the edge of the solar system. The cosmic drummer was part of the object embedded with the gravitation of Jupiter on a counter-headed course.
According to a new study, the body of huge sizes, which caused the death of giant reptiles, was not an asteroid between Jupiter and Mars, as some scientists believe. According to the authors of scientific work, the heavenly object was part of the comet from the Oort cloud. Learning comets make one circle around the shone hundreds of years. The results of previous studies show that the likelihood to cross the path of the land of comets is very small.
As part of the work carried out, the results of which were published in the article by Scientific Reports, managed to find out: Jupiter's gravity can push up to 20% comet closer to the Sun, where their gap occurs. The separated parts are 10 times more likely, unlike other comets of the Oort cloud, amazed the land. Researchers who represent the University of Texas in Austin could find out that the Heavenly Guest had a width of 9.6 km and hit the planet at a speed of about 71,840 km / h. The fall in the cosmic object at the end of the chalk period led to the formation of a crater, whose diameter was 180 kilometers. The gigantic trail was discovered next to the modern city of Chiksulub (Mexico).
The origin of the impact facility, which left a huge trail on the territory of the Yucatan Peninsula, is unknown. According to some versions, 160 million years ago, because of the collision of asteroids, a meteorite arose, which caused dinosaur extinction. After the geological analysis of Crater, the Chiksulub was found that the cosmic body is a carbonal chondrite - the type of meteors, which makes only about 10% of the number of asteroids of the solar system identified in the main belt. Authors of work, astronomers Avi Leb and Amir Siraj believe that it is possible that most of the objects from the Oort cloud has a similar composition.