Their days were numbered, all manner of Cretaceous life in kingdom plantae and animalia. Those that survived the impact winter became our modern groups of terrestrial and aquatic plants, animals, and marine plankton. Scientists want to understand how the Chicxulub asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago changed the conditions for life on the planet and veiled the sun for so many years, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Secrets to this understanding are locked in the asteroid’s physical composition. An international research group has now produced a unique elemental map of the spherules formed by the asteroid impact, with data from MAX IV’s Balder and NanoMAX beamlines. The findings may better explain the aerosol cloud formation that catalysed extinction-level climate change.
