Deep impact: touring central Australia’s cosmic craters

The luminous Milky Way is not the only feature that makes space feel close in the Central Desert – you can also witness the aftermath of stars that fell to Earth

“You didn’t mention camping on Mars.”

My wife had a point: thin air, thinner soil, extreme UV, rocks straight from a Nasa red-planet image, jagged ranges – all ideal backdrops for a movie set. No wonder the place was considered for training by the Apollo program. Its sparse life forms include an intimidating shrub whose thorns mimic the stingers on the scorpions that come out after dark. A harsh, forbidding place, but beautiful too. We made shade with our camper awning and waited for magic time: the desert at dusk.

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Scientific models suggest the meteorites hit Earth at 40,000km/h in an explosion akin to the Hiroshima blast.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/MHzfUsI

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