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THIS time, we take a look at the last cosmic body in outer space that we are interested in. A class of cosmic bodies has had catastrophic results on the lives of dinosaurs that once lived on Earth 100-66 million years ago. The cosmic objects in question are the asteroids, which sometimes strike the Earth creating craters that some of which may today be found below sea beds. The interest in asteroids lies in the fact that astrogeologists and other scientists posit that an asteroid that fell on Earth led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Asteroids are of interest to us in that when they hit the surface of our Planet Earth, they may impact negatively on the continued existence of life forms on Earth. Indeed, one of the biggest asteroids to collide with earth led to the extinction of an estimated 70 percent of life forms on Earth.
Asteroids are minor planets of the inner Solar System. They vary significantly in shape and sizes, ranging from one-metre rocks to dwarf planets almost 1 000 kilometres in diameter. In terms of their nature, they consist of rocky metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
Over millennia, several asteroids have hit the surface of the Earth. However, this is not to say asteroid strikes are limited to hitting the surface of the Earth. They will hit the surfaces of other planets too. Astrogeologists estimate there have been 60 objects that hit Earth in the last 600 million years. Their numbers and sizes is calculated from the resulting craters and their numbers.
Asteroids form an asteroid belt located between the orbits of planets Mars and Jupiter. They can become planets, in which case they will orbit the sun like the other known planets that are part of the Solar System within the Milky Way Galaxy (uMthala). They may also, in line with other planets, have moons that orbit them.
Here is one asteroid, the Chicxulub Event that occurred about 66 million years ago when the 10-15 kilometres wide asteroid hit Earth in present day Mexico. This asteroid is estimated to have led to the extinction of 70 percent of all species on Earth including the famed dinosaurs that walked the surface of the Earth.
The location of the resulting crater proves to be of interest to geologists, astrogeologists and geographers. The crater was located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa. It was discovered 248 miles off the coast of Guinea. The crater is about 8,5 kilometres in diameter. There is some correspondence in terms of location between Mexico in Meso-America and Guinea in West Africa.
When I saw the two locations indicated on a map, I immediately remembered A-level Geography lessons that I did in the 1970s relating to Continental Drift E, we were taught that a long time ago there existed a single continent mass, Pangea. That was to be followed by the separation and continental drift, creating the disposition of the continents, as we know it today.
The existence of a single block of continent mass before the separation into several continents is now going to lead to continental collision with some oceans ceasing to exist. The proto-continent was named Pangea and the separated continents may be fitted back into that Mother Continent, jigsaw puzzle way. Indeed. The bulge in West Africa seems to fit well into the enlarged Mexican Bay.
When an asteroid hit one part of the unified continent, the separated portions today bear the marks of the catastrophic impact. The separated, but once united portions resemble each other in the species of existing life forms, geological history and other characteristics. When now separated, the corresponding parts, which were once united, we surely expect them to have shared elements of natural history. This is the case with regard to Mexico and West Africa.
Separate and distinct components deriving from a common source will inevitably share a lot in common. This has been found to be the case with regard to the absence of heavy metallic elements such as Iron, Magnesium and Lithium in the stars belonging to Population III. These were formed about 100 million years after the Big Bang. Instead, these old stars seem to have contained the lighter elements such as Helium and Hydrogen. This was long before our Earth came into existence. A supernova, the death of a star, led to the creation of a neutron or black hole, which swallows even light.
However, there are scientists who are of the opinion that the dinosaurs were already in decline at the time of the catastrophic collision between Earth and the famed asteroid that struck during the transition between the Cretaceous and Paleogene Eras. Their argument is that at the time of the divide between the two epochs referred to above, the biodiversity of the dinosaurs was rather limited. That was several million years before the divide between the two eras.
Fossil eggs and eggshells unearthed in China suggest that the dinosaurs were already on the wane well before the asteroid impact of 66 million years ago. The study was based on more than 1 000 fossilised eggs and eggshells. The recovered specimens revealed that the dinosaurs were not that diverse before the much-hyped extinction at the close of the Cretaceous Era about 100-66 million years ago.
Back then,there were no technologies, be they spiritual or scientific, to deal with asteroids. In fact, the asteroids were not foreseen like is the case now where their advance is monitored. Nor is human intervention still limited to monitoring the asteroid advances and gazing them in despair. Nasa has developed a technology to identify an approaching asteroid and take measures to ensure it does not hit the surface of the earth. Apparently, that preventive measure was put into practice in 2022. The NABA, on 26 December 2022, celebrated exceeding expectations during a mission to deflect a distant asteroid in a sci-fi-like test of humanity’s ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on earth.
It was like the concretisation of science fiction captured in films such as Armageddon and Deep Impact. The asteroid, which was possibly going to bring doom and calamity, was hurtling towards Earth at the speed of 23 500 kilometres per hour. Given the available technology, the purveyor of doom was not allowed to proceed on its destructive mission. It was attacked and pushed into a smaller and faster orbit.
The powerful Hubble Telescope that peers into outer space was able to capture the image of the asteroid Dimorphos after it had been hit. It was observed to have developed a bright tail. In fact, what had happened was that what had been an asteroid was turned into a man-made or artificial comet with a characteristic tail that looked like Halley’s Comet that appeared in 1910.
With the spectre of use of nuclear weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian war, increased occurrences of tsunamis, solar flares and asteroid attacks, life on Earth is threatened more than at any other time. While technology did save the day by attacking Dimorphos, the chances of things going wrong are higher. In the end, we could face what dinosaurs faced at the close of the Cretaceous Period. We are not sure regarding the nature of Armageddon.
Then there is more heightened talk about the aliens posing yet another threat to our existence on Earth. We may not be the most technologically advanced human species in the universe. It is a humbling thought especially for those who lord it over Africans. Perhaps they will feel the weight of the burdensome yoke when they too are on the receiving end.