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The Chicxulub Crater and the Demise of the Dinosaurs
In 1987, scientists discovered one of the largest impact craters on Earth at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This giant crater, measuring more than 200 miles wide, was produced by a meteorite that blasted away rock from the Earth's crust over 65 million years ago. Scientists called it the Chicxulub Impact Crater (shik-sa-lube). After conducting research, scientists confirmed that the Chicxulub crater was created during the time of the great dinosaur extinction 65 million years ago. Many different theories exist about why this extinction occurred. Many scientists believe that a meteorite impact caused devastating changes in Earth's environment at this time and killed off lots of animals, including large, non-avian dinosaurs.
Size: a few feet to over 600 miles wide
Location: found on the surface of almost every object in the solar system
Number on Earth: about 150 that are larger than three feet wide
Characteristics: dents in planet's surface
Significance: craters provide a record of past impacts on an object's surface
Most craters on the Moon are about:
9 miles long
900 miles long
90,000 miles long
Correct!
Most craters on the Moon are relatively small, although there is one crater that measures more than 200 miles wide!
More craters can be found on the Moon and Mercury than on any other planet.
Fact
Most meteors burn up in a planet's atmosphere. Mercury and the Moon do not have an atmosphere, so more craters are visible there.
Meteorites only began hitting Earth around the time of the dinosaurs.
Fiction
Meteorites have been hitting Earth since it formed. Most impacts happened early in Earth's history when more loose material was flying through space.