Displaythe NASA map showing the 20-year global distribution of asteroid impacts on Earth. Give students an opportunity to make and record observations. You might ask if students notice any patterns in the data. Have students turn to a partner and briefly share observations, then ask for and record three sharings from the class. Thelargest impact crater on Earth, the Vredefort crater in South Africa, is 99 miles (160 km) wide and was likely created about 2 billion years ago, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The SpeciesEnding Asteroids Hit Earth More Often Than We Realized, NASA Research Suggests. NASA Goddard Chief Scientist James Garvin's controversial findings suggest that some past asteroid impacts Anotherof Earth’s largest craters is the 180-km-wide Chicxulub crater, which is buried underneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.It was formed by the Chicxulub impact event approximately 66 million years ago, when Earth was struck by an asteroid or comet approximately 14 km (8.7 miles) in diameter.The impact event caused widespread Themap shows the orbital paths of more than 1,400 asteroids known creep too close to Earth for comfort. None of the asteroids mapped pose an impact threat to Earth within the next 100 years Sudburycrater. Sudbury crater in Ontario, Canada, clocks in at 81 miles (130 km) wide and 1.85 billion years old, close in age and size to Vredefort crater in South Africa. The original crater is Theseimpact zones show where scientists have found meteorites, or the impact craters of meteorites, some dating back as far as the year 2,300BC. The data is from the Meteocritical Society and TheChicxulub crater, shown here in an artist’s conception, formed a little more than 66 million years ago when a meteorite plowed into Earth’s surface, wiping out 75% of all species on the planet. But recent findings suggest the impact actually could have helped generate the conditions necessary for the creation of life itself. .

asteroid impacts on earth map