Probably each of us has heard of a double rainbow, but what about the double fall of meteorites? This is very rare, but researchers in Sweden recently found evidence that about 458 million years ago, two space objects simultaneously fell to Earth at once.
Scientists from the University of Gothenburg discovered 2 large craters in the central part of Sweden. The meteorites that formed them landed literally several kilometers apart. Eric Sturkell is studying craters now.
When space objects fell to Earth, their landing ground was the seabed (approximately 500 meters below water level or 1600 feet). One of the craters formed is huge. Its diameter is 7, 5 km or 4, 7 miles. The other is slightly smaller, namely 700 meters or 1600 feet. The distance between them is 16 km or 10 miles.
After analyzing the information obtained through the long drilling of soil in the places of fall, the researchers established the fact that they (craters) were formed at the same time. Deepening consists of the same soil rocks in the same sequence. The sediment accumulated over a long time of crater existence indicates one time of formation.
“In other words, everything happened at the same time,” Sturkell said in a statement. "Most likely, asteroids collided with a larger space object between Mars and Jupiter about 470 million years ago." Faced with the earth's surface, meteorites pushed all the water out from under them, thereby forming a crater. According to rough estimates by experts, the grooves remained dry for another 100 seconds.
“Afterwards, water gushed back, bringing breakaway particles of meteorites mixed with matter formed by the explosion and the formation of a giant wave,” added Eric.
This is not the first time that scientists have discovered traces of the fall of ancient asteroids, but only in Sweden was a landing site for two objects at once!
In the 40s of the 20th century, a group of workers discovered an unusual red limestone slab in the Kinnekulle district in southern Sweden. Later it turned out that this is a trace of a meteorite. While large asteroids, colliding with Earth, explode and collapse, small ones just fall like stones. And this very plate turned out to be a small part of that asteroid itself.
In total, about 90 meteorites were found in that area in the last 15 years. But in Jämtland, where the double falls of space objects occurred, the researchers found only small pieces of chromite from large, exploded meteors.
