The fall of an asteroid has led to a nearly two-year night on Earth

Disclosed the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of sunlight on Earth.

American scientists have shown that the fall of a giant asteroid during the extinction of the dinosaurs, the most famous of such events on the planet, led to an almost two-year winter and night on Earth. A study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Modeling climate change, conducted by scientists have shown that the planet after the collision with the asteroid has lost approximately 99 percent of the sunlight coming earlier to its surface. This disaster resulted in the discharge of soot and dust after the fall of the celestial body.

The lack of light made it impossible for the existence for one and a half to two years, photosynthesizing plants, in particular almost destroyed the phytoplankton — a key element of the food chain of marine ecosystems.

Experts have shown that after a disaster, the average global temperature of the Earth has fallen to approximately 28 degrees Celsius (on land) and 11 degrees (in the ocean). The asteroid impact also caused the depletion of the ozone layer and warming the stratosphere. Experts believe that these phenomena contributed to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.

The latest occurred about 66 million years ago. Currently there is no single point of view on the causes of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. Among the main mechanisms are called eruptions of supervolcanoes of the earth and collision of the planet with one or more asteroids.

paradox