Dinosaur-killer asteroid hit at ‘worst angle’

THE giant asteroid which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago struck at the ‘deadliest possible’ angle, scientists say.

The collision ejected a vast plume of gases from inside the Earth, which blotted out the Sun and killed 75 per cent of life.

Researchers at Imperial College London used data to visualise rocks beneath the 124mile-wide Chicxulub crater the asteroid made in Mexico and worked out that the asteroid hit at a 45 to 60-degree angle.

The journal Nature Communications reported that by striking at that angle, it sprayed dust and gas from the crater at higher speeds, fast enough to blanket the Earth and block the Sun.