Chinese scientists discovered a meteorite crater on a high mountain for the first time. This result has been published in the English academic journal "Material and Radiation under Extreme Conditions".It is understood that craters on the earth are ring-shaped pits formed by the impact of asteroids and other celestial bodies in the universe on the earth. Meteorites are not only strange existences in nature, but also one of the important basis for scientists to study outer space.
The crater discovered this time is located on the top of a mountain in Baijifeng National Forest Park, more than 20 kilometers southeast of Tonghua City, Jilin Province, my country, with a diameter of 1,400 meters.
The height difference from the highest point on the edge of the pit to the lowest point in the center of the pit is more than 400 meters. It is in the shape of an ice bucket, like a huge funnel hanging on a high mountain. It is magnificent.
Baijifeng National Forest Park is famous for the large number of "sky stones" covering the top of Baijifeng Mountain. Large rock fragments are piled up on the top of the mountain and on the slopes, forming stone waterfalls. However, the origin of these "sky stones" has always been an unsolved mystery in the past.
"After the asteroid hit the top of the mountain, it caused a violent explosion and rock ejection from the target area, forming a huge impact crater, shaping two new peaks, "Front White Chicken" and "Back White Chicken", and changing the original shape of the mountain." said Chen Ming, a researcher at the Beijing High Voltage Science Research Center.
The stone waterfalls now distributed on the mountaintops and slopes are the accumulation of rock fragments such as sandstone and granite that were ejected from the crater to the edge of the crater when the asteroid impact occurred. This new discovery has solved the mystery of the formation of Baiji Peak’s “Sky Stone”.