Mexico Crater
We are all familiar with the surface of the Earth's moon. The craters on the moon were formed by meteors crashing into the moon. Imagine if a large meteor hit the Earth. In 1990, the crew of the space Shuttle was looking at the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. They saw the outline of a giant crater 193 kilometers wide. By examining a specific metal inside the crater (usually found only in asteroids), scientists found that the crater was 65 million years old. They believe that this gigantic meteor (called the Chicxulud meteor ) hit the Earth, substantially altering the Earth's climate. Many scientist argue that the effort of this large meteor impact was necessary to kill off the dinosaurs. The crater in Mexico provides strong evidence of that theory. Without this impact, dinosaurs might not have become extinct.