Hot dispute over impact
Science & Tech Hot dispute over impact Pilbara Craton, Australia.Field photos courtesy of Alec Brenner Kermit Pattison Harvard Staff Writer July 14, 2025 7 min read Harvard team argues oldest meteorite strike to Earth may be more recent, smaller than claimed; site may offer hints on asteroid craters, life on Mars Sometime early in the history of life on Earth, a meteor at least 1 kilometer wide came screaming through the atmosphere and slammed into what is now Western Australia. The impact likely unleashed a cataclysm — a fireball estimated to be more than 8 miles wide with an energy 2,000 times greater than the largest nuclear blast. But the age and size of that impact remains a hot topic of dispute. Earlier this year, a team of Australian scientists reported that the meteorite hit 3.5 billion years ago — making it the oldest impact site on Earth — and left behind a crater up to 62 miles wide. Now...