When a Stream of Cosmic Debris Struck the Earth

A research team including members of Freie Universität Berlin has found traces of an ancient meteor explosion above the Antarctic / Re-assessment of asteroid threat. No 058/2021 from Apr 01, 2021 An international research team has discovered that a huge meteor exploded over the Antarctic ice plateau around 430,000 years ago. The team, which included geoscientist Professor Lutz Hecht from Freie Universität Berlin and the Berlin Museum für Naturkunde, investigated space particles known as "condensation spherules" that were found on top of Walnumfjellet (WN) in the Sør Rondane Mountains in eastern Antarctica. These unusual findings indicate that it was not a large lump of meteoritic stone that struck the Earth, but rather a stream of melted and vaporized meteoritic material. The particles that were discovered are believed to derive from an asteroid of around 100 meters in diameter, which entered the Earth's atmosphere at immense speed but exploded before reaching the planet's surface. The findings of the team's research were published in the highly selective journal Science Advances at the end of March this year. This research demonstrates just how much destructive power may be contained in even a relatively small or medium-sized meteor.