Asteroid 2024 YR4 garnered global attention last year when astronomers estimated it could hit Earth in 2032. Though they have since ruled out that possibility, this large space rock still has a 4% chance of smashing into the Moon. Those are pretty slim odds, but on the off chance 2024 YR4 does end up on […]
Evidence of Ancient Asteroid Impact and Tsunami Found in North Carolina
Around 35 million years ago, a small asteroid traveling at 40,000 miles per hour (64,373 kilometers per hour) struck Earth, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean near the modern-day town of Cape Charles, Virginia. The approximately 3-mile-wide (5-kilometer) object created a large impact crater that’s buried half a mile beneath Chesapeake Bay. Hundreds of miles south […]
New Study Fuels Debate Over World-Changing Comet Strike 12,800 Years Ago
Roughly 12,800 years ago, as Earth was emerging from its last great ice age, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere suddenly plummeted back to near-glacial conditions. The cause of this abrupt shift—known as the Younger Dryas cool period—remains a mystery to this day, but new evidence may give credence to its most controversial explanation. Researchers analyzed […]