Chicxulub asteroid: It’s well established that the Chicxulub

It’s well established that the Chicxulub crater is the remnants of the asteroid impact that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. But how much do we really know about the asteroid that fell to Earth, and precisely what caused the crater? The Chicxulub Crater (IPA: [tʃikʃuˈlub]) is an ancient impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is located near the town of Chicxulub , after which the crater is named—as well as the rough translation of the Mayan name, "the tail of the devil."[1] The crater is more than 180 kilometers (110 mi) in diameter, making the feature one of the largest confirmed impact structures in the world; the impacting bolide that formed the crater was at least 10 km (6 ... It is believed that the asteroid impact fractured the limestone bedrock, creating this network of sinkholes and underground caverns. Today, this subsurface crater is known as the Chicxulub crater (pronounced chick-shoo-loob). While the center of impact is just off the Yucatán coast, the crater is named after the inland town, Chicxulub Pueblo. On December 3, a scientific deep drilling projects starts on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico into the Chicxulub crater that was formed some 65 million years ago by the impact of an asteroid , which is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species.