Where Did the Asteroid That Killed The Dinosaurs Come From

The dinosaurs were wiped out by the impact of the giant Chicxulub asteroid, 66 million years ago. It may have been the largest impact in the past two billion years— so where did it come from? The evidence suggests that Chicxulub began life four and a half billion years ago, out past the orbit of Jupiter, before wandering into the asteroid belt and finally, our part of the solar system. It was a remarkably improbable event— but one of the most improbable things about it may have been its impact on the Gulf of Mexico, which may have made the extinction uniquely deadly.