The extinction of the dinosaurs has been a hotly debated topic for decades, and whether it was an asteroid, a volcanic eruption or even poisonous plant species. But researchers have found hard ...

(Like iridium, ruthenium is more abundant in space rocks than in Earth’s crust.) The team also analyzed ruthenium from other asteroid impact sites and meteorites. The chemical makeup of the ...

With a devastating asteroid impact ... that a historic layer of iridium-rich clay was caused by a large asteroid colliding with Earth. The instantaneous devastation in the immediate vicinity and the ...

Rare Metal The metal iridium ... energy impacts or explosions. Some scientists maintain that the fracture pattern in these quartz crystals could only have been caused by a massive asteroid ...

The impact released ... Was the impactor an asteroid instead of a comet—and if so, what type? Where in the vastness of space had it come from? And could the telltale iridium and global mass ...

But scientists say they expect the asteroid’s future trajectory and impact probability to change as astronomers collect and analyze more data. Identifying an asteroid whose path may be toward ...

"An asteroid this size impacts Earth on average every few thousand years and could cause severe damage to a local region," the European Space Agency said in a statement. By New Year's Eve ...