In May 2020, a study published in the journal Nature revealed the trajectory angle of the meteorite that struck our planet 66 million years ago in the Yucatán Peninsula . This gigantic impact left a crater of 180 square kilometers and created an underground magma chamber. It also wiped out the dinosaurs .
A study published Monday in the journal Astrobiology claims that the underground chamber, which persisted for millions of years, sheltered a significant microbial ecosystem, Gizmodo reported .
According to David Kring, lead author of the study and geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in the United States, the hydrothermal system that survived in the crater, called Chicxulub, could help explain the beginning of life on Earth.
Kring’s team extracted nearly 15,000 kilograms of material from the crater. Investigating the material, scientists detected small spheres called framboids.The analysis of these framboids, which measure only 10 millionths of a meter in diameter, confirmed the presence of «thermophilic colonies of sulfate-reducing organisms,» in other words, groups of microscopic organisms that love heat and have an appetite for sulfates.
According to Gizmodo, these microorganisms lived in the “porous and permeable rock beneath the crater floor and fed on sulfate transported through the rock,” which was available due to the hydrothermal system generated by the impact.
These subterranean microbes survived by taking advantage of the chemical reactions that occurred within the hydrothermal system.
These are organisms not very different from some heat-loving bacteria and archaea found today in Yellowstone Park .
