The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was an exceptionally rare carbonaceous chondrite of the Ornans class (specifically a CO chondrite), why is this unusual?


It's unusual because CO (Ornans-type) carbonaceous chondrites are among the rarer types of meteorites reaching Earth, and they likely represent only a small fraction of the asteroid population. If the Chicxulub impactor really was a CO chondrite, it means the object that caused one of Earth's most consequential events belonged to an uncommon class.

Here's why that's surprising:

1. Most asteroids are not CO chondrites

Asteroids are classified by their composition. The main groups are:

  • Stony asteroids (S-type): Common in the inner asteroid belt.
  • Carbonaceous asteroids (C-type): Common overall, especially farther from the Sun.
  • Metallic asteroids (M-type): Less common.

However, CO chondrites are only one very specific subgroup of carbonaceous chondrites. Other carbonaceous groups include CI, CM, CV, CR, CK, and others. Among meteorites collected on Earth, CO chondrites account for only around 0.5–1% of observed meteorite falls.

2. Carbonaceous chondrites are primitive

CO chondrites formed about 4.56 billion years ago and have changed very little since the Solar System formed. They preserve:

  • tiny spherical chondrules,
  • refractory minerals formed at very high temperatures,
  • primitive organic compounds,
  • isotopic signatures from the early Solar System.

Finding that the Chicxulub impactor was this primitive gives scientists clues about where it formed.

3. The impactor probably came from the outer asteroid belt

Carbonaceous asteroids are concentrated in the outer main asteroid belt, beyond roughly 2.5 AU from the Sun. For one to:

  • escape the belt,
  • be nudged into an Earth-crossing orbit,
  • collide with Earth at exactly the wrong time,

requires a sequence of gravitational perturbations (primarily from Jupiter and resonances in the asteroid belt). While impacts happen throughout Earth's history, impacts by this specific type of asteroid are expected to be less frequent than impacts by more common near-Earth asteroid types.

4. It helps settle a long-standing debate

For years there were competing ideas:

  • the Chicxulub impactor was an ordinary chondrite (the most common meteorite type),
  • it was a carbonaceous chondrite,
  • or even a long-period comet.

Recent geochemical analyses of chromium, osmium, ruthenium, and other isotopes preserved in the impact layer have increasingly pointed toward a carbonaceous chondrite, with some studies arguing that the chemistry most closely matches CO (or closely related CV) chondrites rather than other carbonaceous groups.

Why would such a rare object hit Earth?

"Rare" doesn't mean "impossible."

Several factors matter:

  • CO chondrites are rare among meteorites recovered on Earth, but that doesn't necessarily equal their abundance among all kilometer-scale asteroids.
  • Large impactors come from a different population than the small meteorites that survive passage through the atmosphere.
  • Delivery mechanisms from the outer asteroid belt can preferentially send carbonaceous asteroids into Earth-crossing orbits under certain circumstances.
  • Over Earth's 4.5-billion-year history, even low-probability events eventually occur.

An important caveat

The claim that the impactor was specifically a CO chondrite is still an active area of research. Many planetary scientists agree the evidence strongly supports a carbonaceous chondrite, but distinguishing CO from closely related groups such as CV or other carbonaceous subclasses is more difficult because their isotopic and chemical signatures overlap. So the broader conclusion (a carbonaceous asteroid) is more firmly established than the narrower one (specifically CO).

In short, what's unusual isn't that an asteroid hit Earth—that has happened many times—but that the asteroid responsible for the dinosaur extinction appears to have belonged to a relatively uncommon, primitive subclass of carbonaceous chondrites, making one of Earth's most important impact events the result of an unusually rare kind of object.

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