Son of Chicxulub: What are the chances of 2 coming along together ?

[John]

Interesting report from the BBC (and the research paper it links to is worth a look as well) on a 2nd impactor around the same time as the Chicxulub impact:

Nadir crater: The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was not alone - BBC News

 

 

[TiffsAndAstro]

8 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting report from the BBC (and the research paper it links to is worth a look as well) on a 2nd impactor around the same time as the Chicxulub impact:

Nadir crater: The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was not alone - BBC News

 

 

Two such unlikely events so close together in time suggests deliberate reptilocide by our galactic mammalian overlords. 

 

[Leo S]

Very interesting, but not really a surprise for various reasons.

It's become apparent over recent years just how fragile asteroids tend to be. In many cases they are basically "rubble piles", which are easily broken up by relatively small disturbances. The result of this is that you get many large fragments spreading out along the parent body's orbit, much like Shoemaker-Levy-9. Over time these fragments spread out even more along their orbit, and if the orbit crosses Earth's you now have multiple chances of impacts in a relatively short space of time.

As I pointed out recently, the Taurid Complex may pose a similar type of threat to us, and recent research suggests it has already altered the course of human history on at least one occasion.

I say "asteroids", but the distinction between comets and asteroids has become even more blurred over the years. The Taurids for example are thought to have originated when a giant comet broke up ~20K years ago. Fragments from this breakup are now thought to have been responsible for both Tunguska and Chelyabinsk. It's always been thought impossible for cometary fragments to survive atmospheric entry and make it to the ground as meteorites, but they did (apparently) in Chelyabinsk!