Scientists find evidence of double space impact on ancient Earth

Scientists have claimed that they have found evidence of a double space impact, where an asteroid and its moon struck ancient Earth in tandem.

Scientists, who used tiny, plankton-like fossils, said that the neighboring craters in Sweden are 458 million years old, the BBC reported.

Dr Jens Ormo, researcher from the Madrid's Centre for Astrobiology, said that there are disputes over the precision of dates assigned to these craters and double impact craters must be of the same age, otherwise they could just be two craters right next to each other.

Ormo and his colleagues, who studied two craters called Lockne and Malingen, which lie about 16km apart in northern Sweden results, found that the Malingen was of same age as Lockne, about 458 million years old, confirming that the area was rocked by a double asteroid strike during the Ordovician Period.

Ormo added that Malingen and Lockne were just the right distance apart to have been created by a binary impact.

The findings are to be published in the Meteoritics and Planetary Science journal.