Ancient Fossils Discovered Inside Glass Left Behind After Asteroid Strikes

Ancient Fossils Discovered Inside Glass Asteroids

A series of ancient fossils have been discovered inside an asteroid.

But before you get over-excited, no - it's not evidence of some kind of mysterious extra-terrestrial dinosaur.

In fact the fossils (which originated on Earth, obviously) were created in the instant that an asteroid hit the Earth millions of years ago.

Something which, it turns out, isn't that rare.

Above: Peter Schultz/Geology/GSA

New Scientist has the full story about the new research by Peter Schultz at Brown University, who has shown that two asteroid impact sites in Argentina contain biological material trapped in glass which formed in the aftermath of the strike. The glass was probably formed from rock on the Earth, rather than the asteroid itself.

The research suggests that if other planets - including Mars - once harboured life, we might be able to find evidence of it in similar glass remnants of ancient asteroids.

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