An enormous impact crater thought to have been created by a meteorite the size of a house smashing into Earth has been discovered in the Antarctic ice sheet.
Scientists conducting a routine aerial research flight above East Antarctica noticed a strange ring-like structure in the normally flat and featureless ice.
It appeared to be a series of broken 'icebergs' surrounded by a 2km (1.24 miles) wide circular scar, surrounded by a few other smaller circular scars in the ice.
The researchers later found two separate studies reporting that a meteorite fell in the area in 2004.
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Research by the Australian scientists after they saw the meteorite debris above Antarctica inn 2004 suggested that it was around seven to ten metres (23 to 33 feet) wide and weighted between 600 and 1,900 tonnes.
They estimated that it exploded in the sky above Antarctica with the force of 12,000 tonnes of TNT and was travelling at a speed of 29,080 mph.
The debris created by the explosion would then have crashed to Earth, smashing into the ice.--The Daily Mail
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