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The Dinosaur-Killer Asteroid May Have Hit Earth at 'Deadliest Possible' Angle - ScienceAlert
May 27, 2020 44 secs

Lead author Gareth Collins of Imperial College London and colleagues at the University of Freiburg and the University of Texas at Austin looked at four possible impact angles - 90, 60, 45 and 30 degrees - and two impact speeds, 12 and 20 kilometres per second (7.5 and 12.4 miles per second).

"Sixty degrees is a more lethal impact angle because it ejects a larger amount of material fast enough to engulf the planet," Collins told AFP.

"The Chicxulub impact triggered a mass extinction because it ejected huge quantities of dust and gas out of the crater fast enough to disperse around the globe.".

Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how the asteroid triggered a mass extinction event and why some species survived while others didn't

"The Chicxulub impact was a very bad day for the dinosaurs," Collins said, adding that the new research showed it was "even worse" than had been previously thought

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