This is the exact spot an asteroid made a crater 750,000 years ago

Scientists have pinpointed the location of the place where an asteroid hit Earth approximately 750,000 years ago.

In a study published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,the planetary scientists released evidence showing that the location of impact crater they have been seeking for decades is on the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos.

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Although the evidence for the asteroid's size and event's timing is far and wide, the discovery of the location has been a multi-year study.

Earlier studies say an asteroid hit the Earth's surface about 789,000 years ago, producing many rocks in southeast Asia and Australia. These black glassy rocks, called tektites, formed the most prominent debris spray from an extraterrestrial impact.

Although older and bigger collisions have produced larger sprays, geological processes have long buried the evidence. However, the tektites are recent enough to be visible in several places.

The location remained hidden for a long time due to geological conditions and thick rainforests. It is also in the world's most politically isolated nations. The team led by Professor Kerry Siehof the Nanyang Technological University mentioned in the study that"the unexpected ordnance hampered fieldwork for decades."

Sieh's team used a layer of pebble and boulder-sized rocks called Bolaven diamicton to identify the impact site's location. According to the research team, the impact broke the ancient sandstone and basaltic lava to form the diamicton.

The research team also studied the conclusions of other studies on the impact crater, which convinced them it had not been found as it was filled with lava. From 2015 to 2023, they conducted field research, gathering and analysing tektites from the Bolaven impact and marking their locations on the map. They found small samples that would fit in hand and large deposits up to nine meters thick.

Later, the maps pointed to a radical pattern of thickening ejecta (material thrown out during volcanic explosion) linked around a single plateau. The team believed this indicated where the asteroid crashed into the Earth.

When the team introduced the idea of the crater being beneath the Bolavean Volcanic Field, they did not have enough evidence to convince the geologists. However, they have five separate datasets that point towards the location.

Although the team needs to perform more research at or near the proposed impact site's vicinity, they are confident about the recent study, calling their results "all but definitive."

(With inputs from agencies)