Asteroids

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has shown that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a bilobate, tumbling object formed 155 million years ago. The flyby also detected traces of ancient liquid water on its surface.

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The Chicxulub asteroid impact that ended the dinosaur era left the site in what is now Mexico hot enough to sustain underground microbial life for at least 8 million years. New analysis of rock cores shows the hydrothermal system lasted far longer than earlier estimates suggested.

Samples from asteroid Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases, the key components of DNA and RNA. Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected the material during its 2018 visit and returned it to Earth in 2020. The discovery supports the idea that asteroids delivered life's building blocks to Earth billions of years ago.

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New research has resolved a long-standing debate, confirming that the Silverpit Crater beneath the North Sea resulted from an asteroid strike about 43 to 46 million years ago. The impact generated a tsunami over 100 meters high. Led by Dr. Uisdean Nicholson of Heriot-Watt University, the study used seismic imaging and shocked minerals to provide definitive evidence.