A team of 41 international experts have confirmed that they strongly endorse the theory that the dinosaurs were made extinct largely due to a 15km wide asteroid crashing into Earth. The panel reviewed over 20 years of research to determine their conclusion and writing in the Science Journal, the team rule out many other alternative theories such as mass-volcanism.

The asteroid in question is believed to have hit Earth on the northwestern edge of the Yucatan Penisula, centering around Chicxulub, Mexico. The huge crater that the impact caused – which was over a billion times more explosive than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima – can still be traced today and its diameter (180km) can be seen clearly in the above satellite image.

The intial impact of the asteroid would have created large scale fires, huge earthquakes, tsunamis and continental landslides. The team also noted, speaking at the 41st Lunar and Planetry Science Conference, that the asteroid would have hit Earth at 20 times the speed of a bullet fired from a gun and that collision events like these occur on average once every 100 million years.