What it would have been like to experience dinosaur-killing asteroid

"Around 66 million years ago, a six-mile (10km)-wide space rock called Chicxulub smashed into Mexico. The impact famously wiped out the dinosaurs, caused worldwide devastation and changed the course of history. The collision released a huge dust and soot cloud that partially blocked out the sun and caused temperatures to plummet - and in the years that followed, it wiped out more than 50 per cent of all animal and plant species on Earth."

"The experts said that it would have been 'pleasantly warm', about 26°C (79°F), and wet at 'ground zero' at the time. The asteroid, which has been visible in the sky at night for about a week, can now be seen in the daytime. It looks like a star or planet getting gradually brighter."

"A bright light is followed by a sonic boom as the asteroid hits the Yucatán Peninsula in southeast Mexico. Anything near the impact site would have been incinerated instantly, the experts said. 'The asteroid is so huge that it almost certainly hits the ground before any living creature near the impact zone has time to run for cover,' they wrote."

"'The event triggered instant changes to our planet and its atmosphere and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs and about half Earth's other species,' they wrote on The Conversation. 'But what would it have been like to experience such a gargantuan impact? Would you have died or survived? As experts on meteoritics and palaeontology, respectively, we've created a detailed timeline, based on decades of research, to take you right there.'"

A six-mile-wide asteroid struck the Yucatán Peninsula about 66 million years ago, releasing dust and soot that partially blocked sunlight and drove temperatures sharply downward. The impact triggered instant atmospheric and planetary changes, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and more than half of Earth’s animal and plant species. Near the impact site, conditions would have been incinerating almost immediately, with the asteroid likely reaching the ground before nearby creatures could escape. Even at far distances, the event would have produced intense light and a sonic boom, followed by escalating environmental devastation. After the collapse, mammals gained an ecological opening to thrive, eventually allowing human evolution.

Read at Mail Online