Comet impact may have created Earth's 'oldest' crater

Scientists have suggested that the Sudbury Basin located in Ontario, Canada, may have been created by a comet.

The crater, which is one of the largest known impact craters on Earth, is also one of the oldest due to its formation more than 1.8 billion years ago.

Researchers had taken samples from the site and subjected them to a detailed geochemical analysis and have come to the conclusion that a comet may have hit the area to create the crater.

The said that their analysis revealed a chondritic platinum group element signature within the crater's fallback deposits, however, the distribution of the elements within the impact structure and other constraints suggested that the impactor was a comet.

Joe Petrus, lead author of the Terra Nova paper said that it seemed that a comet with a chondritic refractory component may have created the world-famous Sudbury basin.