Scientists now believe they know where the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs came from

However, it is present in some asteroids, especially those beyond Jupiter, where it is preserved in a kind of cold storage.

Our solar system contains many remnants from the time of its formation. Comets are dusty and icy remnants, whereas asteroids consist mainly of rock. Meteorites or small pieces of rock fall to Earth every now and then. Scientists' knowledge of the composition of asteroids comes mainly from these remnants.

However, not all asteroids are made of the same material. There are three main composition classes of asteroids: C-types (carbonaceous); S-types (stony); and M-types (metallic).

Cosmic fingerprint

The asteroid that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck Earth 66 million years ago between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, known as the K-Pg boundary. While scientists cannot study the asteroid itself because it was destroyed, they can study the isotopes left behind – in this case, ruthenium.

“The isotope signatures we measure can be considered a kind of fingerprint,” said lead author Mario Fischer-Gödde, who is also a scientist at the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Cologne. “So when there is a large impact, we vaporize rock and the asteroid itself, but this fingerprint remains.”

(Submitted by the Royal Ontario Museum via CBC News)