HONOLULU (UPI) -- A scientist in Hawaii says the asteroid implicated in the extinction of dinosaurs was much smaller than previously suggested.
Francois Paquay of the University of Hawaii Manoa has developed a new tool using variations of osmium isotope composition in the marine sediment record to estimate the size of asteroid impacts, the university said Thursday in a release.
The findings are published in the journal Science.
Paquay said sediment shows the asteroid that created Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico was about 2.5 miles wide -- less than half the size that researchers had previously suggested, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The researchers estimate the size of the asteroid that created the 63-mile-wide Popigai crater in Siberia at about 1.7 miles across. Previous estimates had put that asteroid at about 2.5 miles across.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
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