A 70-kilometre-wide impact structure in the Australian Outback has been dated to 2.2 billion years old, making it the oldest known asteroid crater on Earth. Fascinatingly, this asteroid likely plunged into a massive ice sheet, triggering a global-scale warming period.
Some 1.2 billion years ago, an asteroid measuring over 1 kilometre wide smashed into northwest Scotland. Trouble is, scientists aren’t sure exactly where the meteorite struck, as traces of the crater are long gone. With new research, however, scientists are starting to hone in on the impact zone.
An unusually large asteroid crater measuring 31km wide has been discovered under a continental ice sheet in Greenland. Roughly the size of Paris, it’s now among the 25 biggest asteroid craters on Earth.