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Giant Meteor Struck 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Posted by michael on from the earth-in-the-corner-pocket dept.

Jay Moore writes "According to this article on CNN, scientists believe a giant meteor 12 kilometers across struck the earth some 3.5 billion years ago making it the oldest known meteorite to have hit the earth."

26 comments

  1. This got me thinking by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 1

    Maybe the lowering of global temperature this caused led the bacteria to evolve into more advanced life forms to survive?Maybe it made *possible* the developpment of plants,and the bacterias decided "Hey cool we could become that!Let's do so" I know its nowhere as near as siple as that,but just my 2 cents

    --
    I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
    1. Re:This got me thinking by Treeluvinhippy · · Score: 3, Funny
      I know its nowhere as near as siple as that,but just my 2 cents

      Keep your money, you'll need it.

      --
      >
    2. Re:This got me thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Ah yes the typical evolutionist assignment of intelligence and motives to nonsentient creatures:
      and the bacterias decided "Hey cool we could become that!Let's do so"
      Yet more proof that evolutionists are at least as faith-based as creationists.
    3. Re:This got me thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't get too smug. Creationists do that too.

  2. Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by therealmoose · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why does every news story involving meteorite have to have this picture? Where is it from? Is it a secret messages to terrorists?!

    1. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apologies for grammar nitpicking..."meteorite" is the mineral deposit that results from a meteor hitting the earth. "Meteor" is a rocky object that hits earth's atmosphere. It was named this in reference to "Meteorology", that is,some scientists believed that meteors were a weather phenomonon and couldn't believe that something from "outer" space would hit the earth.

    2. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by !splut · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, judging from the little "NASA" on the side of the image, I'd say it's from NASA. Whether it's more or less comforting to know that NASA is spending free time depicting the total annihilation of the Earth, rather than sending messages to terrorists, I don't know.

      --
      The angel in the oatmeal.
    3. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by cryptor3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That sounds like something I said yesterday...

    4. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      one word:
      Steganography

    5. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And of course, if that meteorite was to scale, it must be close to the size of the moon.. A little bigger than 20 km.. Leave it to NASA to exaggerate.. Good for the fellow USers.

    6. Re:Ah, the typical meteorite impact picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously it is a message from the activist movement known as the C.L.I.T.

  3. imagine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a Beowulf cluster of those...

    oh never mind

  4. Measurement Systems... by ztc · · Score: 3, Informative

    The summary of the article should read either 20 kilometers or 12 miles (not 12 kilometers) as the article mentions.

    1. Re:Measurement Systems... by one9nine · · Score: 1

      The submitter must work for NASA.

    2. Re:Measurement Systems... by Scrameustache · · Score: 2

      Actually, the people at Nasa don't have any problems wih it, they use the international unit system. Its the subcontracters that still use the old english imperial units and mess things up.

      Ya know, for a country so bent up on not being subjects of the crown...people do hang on to the old ways quite a bit.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    3. Re:Measurement Systems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That confusion must be the reason the thing crashed in the first place.

  5. 12 miles is peanuts by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    It is theorized that a Mars-sized object smacked into the Earth to create our moon some time a bit earlier than this one.

    12 miles is a pebble in comparison to Mars. It is like the difference between being hit by a bicycle and by a Mac truck.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:12 miles is peanuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no, it's the difference between being hit by a tennis ball and a 767.

  6. Get With the Times by Sentry21 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seriously, I know Slashdot isn't a real news site, but it's pretty sad when something that happened 3.5 billion years ago is considered news. It's over dudes, it's old news, let's try and keep up to date, shall we?

    --Dan

  7. Exactly... by fredopalus · · Score: 0

    3.5476547754747549430032321578 million years to be exact. Meteor schmeteor. It seems as though scientists have to have at least 2 different scenario's of every theory.

    --
    Jonahweb.com has stuff.
    1. Re:Exactly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course. Or else it wouldn't be science.

  8. interesting by fredopalus · · Score: 1, Funny

    I don't seem to remember any meteor hitting the earth at that time. Maybe I was asleep.

    --
    Jonahweb.com has stuff.
  9. Um.. by droyad · · Score: 1

    As opposed to all the NEW Giant Meteors we have been getting lately?

  10. A little late? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've heard that CNN was slipping, but geez!

  11. Now, seriously... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Couldn't we all see this coming?