Aug 14 1992
From The Space Library
A group of scientists said in today's issue of the journal Science that new studies prove that a buried crater in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is the point of impact of an asteroid that smashed into the Earth about 65 million years ago, contributing to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Yucatan crater is big enough to be linked directly to ancient extinctions, and its mineral content is also compatible with that produced by an ancient explosion. Geologists, led by Carl C. Switcher 1II of the University of California at Berkeley, California, have dated rocks from the crater to 64.98 million years old, making the crater the leading candidate for a cataclysmic impact thought to have contributed to the mass extinction of life forms, including dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. (NY Times, Aug 14/92; B Sun, Aug 14/92; C Trib, Aug 14/92)
Reacting to the recent failed attempt at tethered space flight by the crew of Shuttle Atlantis, Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, the payload commander, said NASA needed to improve the way equipment was tested on the ground before flight. "When we're doing fundamentally new things, we've really got to pay close attention to how we're doing the testing on the ground or else we're going to continue to get surprised," Hoffman said. (APN, Aug 14/92)
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