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Chicxulub crater
The gist
New research traces the Chicxulub dinosaur-killing asteroid to beyond Jupiter and models a two-stage dust disaster.
The work narrows a 66-million-year-old mystery and reframes how the extinction unfolded.
How it unfolded
- 66.043 ± 0.043 MaThe Chicxulub impact structure formed, at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary.
- 2024A study offered a possible explanation for the asteroid's origin; its chemical composition indicated it could have been a carbon-rich asteroid formed beyond the planet Jupiter.
- Sep 11, 2026A new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences argues life faced two atmospheric disasters in close succession — fine silicate dust intensified an hours-long pulse of thermal radiation, then the same dust helped block sunlight and sustain colder, darker conditions that damaged food webs for years.