Plot Twist: The Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Didn't Come Alone

About 66 million years ago, a 10-km-wide object from space hit the Earth and initiated the fifth mass extinction event. From causing wildfires that raged across the continents to triggering tsunamis, the impact wiped out nearly 75% of life on the planet and specifically led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. In addition, the impactor left behind a vast, 180-km-wide crater known as the Chicxulub crater underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in today's Mexico.

So far, scientists have believed that there was a single massive chunk of rock that triggered the extinction event. But now, in a ground-breaking discovery, they have found evidence that the Chicxulub impactor didn't come alone. Instead, it had a companion whose impact created the newly discovered Nadir Crater. 

So how did scientists discover this crater? How do they know its impactor contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs? Finally, and most importantly, how many more such craters from that period lay undiscovered?

The 25th episode of the Sunday Discovery Series answers all these questions in detail.

REFERENCES:

Created By: Rishabh Nakra and Simran Buttar
Narrated By: Jeffrey Smith

The Secrets of the Universe on the internet:

[millennialfalcon]

So glad these videos don't rehash history for the first 8 minutes of the video and then only get to the new information in the last 2 minutes like so many other channels that I refuse to watch. Keep up the good work

[jeffreyrigby]

Why dont any of these videos ever show the true geography of the Earth during the ages of dinosaurs and meteor impacts. Continental drift is very important when imagining these events and allows people to understand better the destructive implications when when these events happen. If these meteors did impact approximately at the same time they were very close together instead of having the Atlantic ocean between impact areas. 66 million years ago S. America and Africa were very very close to each other

[chesterpophamproductions]

Yes I saw another astronomer who said there is now a third large impact crater that also hit around the same time. So yeah there you go. The dinosaurs saw it coming and attempted to blow it up but only causes it to split into multiple smaller, but still large meteors that wiped them out. The last part is a joke, but still

[chrisvickers]

When I worked for a big oil company one of the company researchers gave an internal lecture on buried impact craters as possible trap for oil and described how one would appear in the geophysics. He called them astroblemes. My odd sense of humour wondered, not out loud, if astroblemes could be treated with clearasoil.

[RodMartinJr]

NOTE: There were dozens, if not hundreds, of mass extinction events. The 5 biggest are most often discussed, but there were numerous others. Virtually every few million years or so. Change is ALWAYS a constant!

[micixduda]

66 mil years already? i was thought it was 65, man how time fly.

[jamesconsiglio]

When I was in high school ( 1974 ) this subject was brought up in class ...at that time only one Crater was known , are thoughts were that more than one asteroid hit the earth but we're unknown because they landed in the ocean and over the years became hidden by nature...Our technology of today has opened our eyes to see so much more since then ...I'm so glad my earth science class was proven correct I hope my instructor Mr. Welch is still with us to see his , I'm Shure he is smiling no matter where he is : )

[Rain_Zima]

I was reading a writeup by a professor in boulder Colorado, he had found that there were multiple impact points along the rocky mountains dating back to the very same impact. his theory is that the meteor broke up into many different sections and peppered the North American craton cracking it in half allowing for the full formation of the rocky mountains we see today.

[billkallas]

It also could have hit the Earth 1, 000 years, or 50, 000 years after the larger impact.

[rsoulinternet]

Groundbreaking is a very good choice of word.

[igorvoloshin]

I don't know what paleontologists you've consulted with but I know since 90's that there is an about 100-kilometer wide buried crater in the centre of Ukraine. It is also 65 milloin years old and its epicenter is in Svetlovodsk city, Kirovograd region, and it makes Svetlovodsk rare metals deposit.

[kdrapertrucker]

I would be surprised if a rock big enough to destroy all life on earth didn't break up when it hit the atmosphere, or when the Earth's gravity caught it. Kind of like the shoemaker-levy 9 comet when it got caught by Jupiter.

[missjayspeechley]

I can't help but think of my own country, Australia as a gigantic crater. When you look at the topography of the continent we see curved mountain ranges running up and down the east and west coast. Pretty much everything between those mountain ranges is flat, with a giant rock (Uluru) in the middle. I wonder why no one else sees this

[alexbowman]

3 interesting facts about birds and at least some dinosaurs. 1. Birds and dinosaurs had lighter stronger bones enabling easier flight in birds and giant sizes in dinosaurs like the saurapods. 2. Birds and dinosaurs had more efficient lungs enabling easier flight in birds and huge size in some dinosaurs. 3. Birds and perhaps at least some dinosaurs have smaller more efficient nureons enabling toddler level intelligence and self awareness in some birds and perhaps at least some dinosaurs had intelligence. What may have been the difference and why mammals eventually inherited the Earth is that dinosaurs and birds lay eggs which small hungry mouse like mammals post impact apocalypse may have fed on preventing an eventual repopulation. Mammals having live births was probably more successful in producing offspring that survived. Even nowadays in some islands the appearance of rats from arriving boats decimate ground roosting bird populations through egg eating.

[halslusher]

Nice to hear other theories about extinction event

[elihernandez]

"Sir, there's been a second asteroid"

[AvangionQ]

Chance of a triple threat? Shiva crater near India is another massive undersea crater, also dating to 66 million years ago, that's even larger than Nadir or Chixulub ☄

[katesisco]

Yes, I would also like to see the Earth's surface related to the time line of the asteroid impact.

[StephenGillie]

Where's a mention of the Deccan Traps flood basalt event, caused by the Chicxulub impact? It's covered by the Dean of UW Seattle in another YouTube video.

[dovbarleib]

If there are 2 asteroid hits, there probably were a dozen or more smaller hits. A shower of rocks of course.