[ad_1]
A new study has found shocking evidence about the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs from Earth. It also suggests that the in future, Earth can be hit by multiple asteroids at once.
On Tuesday, September 27, NASA reached a historic milestone when it struck an asteroid with a spacecraft with an expectation to change its trajectory. Part of its planetary defense system, this can be a very important tool for us in case an asteroid heads towards the Earth and scientists need to deflect it using a spacecraft. However, a new study has revealed shocking information that the Earth is more likely to get struck with multiple asteroids at once instead of just a single asteroid. If the claims are true, then the planetary defense system might not be enough to protect us.
The study has been published in the Science Advances journal and has analyzed microscopic glass beads within lunar soil samples. What the study found out was that the glass beads were created inside the surface of the Moon due to intense heat and pressure generated by meteor strikes. Researchers studied these glass beads to reconstruct a timeline to find out when these strikes could have formed. Shockingly, they found that these strikes on the Moon mirrored the prehistoric asteroid strikes on Earth. Scientists also found evidence of multiple asteroid strikes on the Moon at the same time when the Chicxulub asteroid struck the Earth and wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs.
“We combined a wide range of microscopic analytical techniques, numerical modeling and geological surveys to determine how these microscopic glass beads from the moon were formed and when,” Alexander Nemchin, a professor at SSTC and the lead author of the study said in a statement, reported Space. com.
Study claims Earth is likely to be struck with multiple asteroids at the same time
This study highlights something which was not being considered earlier. And that is, asteroids might be striking in groups and not in isolation. This is still a correlation than a causation but this pattern is concerning, given most asteroid defense systems, either being tested like the NASA DART or being formulated are focusing on a single large asteroid strike. If the Earth were to be bombarded with asteroid showers, these solutions would simply not work and humanity might perish.
[ad_2]
Source link