Last Updated on July 20, 2026 by Staff
Scientists have found out more about the rock that hit the Earth 66 million years ago. This rock caused a lot of animals to die, including the dinosaurs. The scientists read a study in Science Advances that said the rock that killed the dinosaurs was probably a rare CO carbonaceous chondrite meteorite. This kind of rock is very rare. Not many of them have been found.
The scientists who worked on this project were from the University of British Columbia, Paris, Brussels and Vienna. They used a way of looking at the rock to figure out what it was made of. This way of looking at the rock is called nickel isotope analysis. The scientists found out a lot about the rock that killed the dinosaurs and changed the Earth.
Even though we already knew that a big rock killed the dinosaurs, this new information is still important. It helps us understand what happened when the rock hit the Earth.
A Big Crash
66 million years ago a huge rock hit the Earth. The rock was between 10 and 15 kilometers across. It was going very fast, about 64,000 kilometers per hour. The rock made a hole in the Earth called the Chicxulub crater which is now under the ground in Mexico.
When the rock hit the Earth it made a lot of dust. Rocks go up into the air. This blocked out the sun. Made it hard for animals to survive. About 75% of all species on Earth died, including all the dinosaurs that were not birds.
What Was the Rock?
For a time scientists have been trying to figure out what kind of rock killed the dinosaurs. To do this they looked at the dirt and rocks that were laid down after the crash. They found pieces of the rock that were trapped in the dirt.
The scientists used nickel isotope analysis to look at these pieces of rock. They compared them to rocks that have fallen to the Earth and found that the rock that killed the dinosaurs was a CO carbonaceous chondrite.
Why Is This Rock Special?
Rocks like this are very rare. They make up about 5% of all the rocks that have fallen to the Earth. Within that group CO chondrites are even rarer.
These rocks are special because they are very old and have not changed much since the solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago. They do not have a lot of elements like carbon, sulfur and water.
Some scientists thought that sulfur from the rock might have caused a lot of the problems after the crash. This new study says that sulfur was probably not as important as they thought. Instead the dust and rocks that went up into the air were probably what caused the problems.
Bad Luck for the Dinosaurs
The scientists say that the crash was a rare event. The rock that killed the dinosaurs was very unusual. It was just bad luck that it hit the Earth.
The scientists think that the rock might have come from a part of the solar system, maybe near Jupiter. If the rock had been different or if it had hit the Earth in a way things might have turned out very differently.
What’s Next?
Even though we now know what kind of rock killed the dinosaurs there is still a lot to learn. The scientists want to figure out where the rock came from and how it got to the Earth.
They also want to use this information to help us understand what might happen if another rock hits the Earth. By studying the rocks that have fallen to the Earth we can learn more about the system and how it was formed.
This new study is a part of the puzzle of the Earth’s history. It helps us understand what happened to the dinosaurs and how the Earth has changed over time.