Earth got gobsmacked with a space rock more than three billion years ago, when bacteria reigned supreme. This space rock was 50 to 200 times larger than the infamous one that killed the dinosaur eons later, and yet, it seems the hefty collision wound up giving early life a boost.
The finding, which is detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, attempts to shed light on a mysterious chapter in our planet’s history. When life was just getting going on Earth, our planet was still in the middle of colossal bombardments. Somehow, this didn’t entirely wipe out life. That’s despite events like the new study’s subject, a meteorite called S2, that triggered a massive tsunami and boiled the oceans.
